Milady
by tpt player 5701
Summary: Adrien's eyes narrowed and took on a look of hardened resolve as he turned away from her, toward Hawk Moth. "Stay behind me, Milady." "Milady"? Ladybug's eyes widened. No… "So long as I can do anything about it, you will never lay a hand on her." Hawk Moth laughed. "And what can you do about it, son?" "Plagg—" Ladybug's eyes went wide. "CLAWS OUT!"
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: This is part one of three planned stories, which diverge from the series after 3x13 ("The Puppeteer 2").

* * *

"Cat Noir! Behind you!"

Cat Noir ducked on instinct. A brightly-colored flash streaked past his head. A couple feet ahead, it wheeled around, squawking, and flew back at him, talons spread wide and beak open. With an angry roar, Cat Noir swung his staff at the parrot like a baseball bat, aiming to send the bird all the way to the Seine.

He had barely begun the swing when he felt a tug on the end of his staff. Looking back, Ladybug had caught it with her yo-yo. Cat Noir ducked below the parrot's dive before straightening up and giving Ladybug a glare, panting heavily. "What did you do that for, Milady?"

"Don't hurt them!" she called back, releasing his staff with a flick of her wrist. "They're being controlled; they don't know what they're doing." She jumped into a back flip over a pack of dogs, landing nimbly on one foot in the middle of a mass of hamsters.

"You know cats and birds aren't supposed to get along, right?" he yelled. "And anyways, how are we supposed to get to whoever's _controlling_ these animals if we can't touch them?"

"Working on it," she grunted, sidestepping a herd of cats and swatting aside a very persistent pigeon. "Lucky Charm!" she shouted, swinging her yo-yo above her head. Energy surged from the yo-yo and resolved into a box of dog treats.

"Hey, great!" Cat Noir commented. "I was feeling a little hungry."

"I don't think these are for your kind of animal, Cat Noir," Ladybug retorted, looking around her at the mass of various house pets wreaking havoc on the city park.

"So you think I'm an animal?" He wagged his eyebrows at her.

She rolled her eyes. "You're not _that_ kind of animal either."

"Milady, I'm touched," he said, putting one hand over his heart. "I had no idea you thought so highly of me."

"Focus, Cat. Now give me your bell."

"Right." He unfastened his bell and tossed it over to her. Ladybug caught it deftly in midair. Cat Noir ducked a flock of birds, threaded a needle between cats and dogs, and slipped behind a pony. "Who in Paris has a pet _pony_?" he demanded.

"Whoever it is, we should thank them!" Ladybug answered, grinning. "I need you to tie this to the pony's leash." She handed him the box of treats, poked through with a bunch of feathers she'd plucked from a flock of parakeets and with his bell tied onto its top with a dog's leash.

Beyond commenting on her unusual plans, Cat Noir hastened to obey. "Okay, now what?"

"Now, give it a smack in that direction." She pointed along a tangent just to the side of the epicenter of the animal storm.

"Gee up, horsey!" Cat Noir shouted, slapping the horse's rump as he did so. The horse neighed and charged into the mass of animals. The sound of the galloping horse, combined with the jingling bell, drew the attention of the swarming animals. Then a dog smelled the treats and bayed, followed by about half the dogs and cats present. As the horse passed, the box of treats tore open and started spilling its contents. The pets, distracted from their controller's commands, chased after the horse.

Ladybug charged through the rapidly-diminishing mass of animals, Cat Noir hot on her heels. As they approached the person standing in the middle of the animals, they finally caught sight of the Akumatized victim. She was dressed in bright purple athletic shorts with a green shirt. She wore roller blades and a helmet. In one hand was a dog's leash which she swung around and cracked like a whip.

"I am Dog Walker!" she screamed, swinging the whip around behind her head. As the whip darted forward, Cat Noir dove into Ladybug's side, knocking her down. The whip cracked right where Ladybug's head had been seconds before.

"Thanks, Kitty," Ladybug said, giving him a smile as she pushed herself back up to one knee.

"I'm always happy to sweep Milady off her feet!"

"My dogs refused to heed me, so Hawk Moth has given me complete control over _all_ animals! And all he wants in return is for me to tame you, Ladybug and Cat Noir! Then the dogs I walk will no longer be able to disobey me!" Dog Walker shouted, moving toward them and brandishing her whip.

"Sorry, Dog Walker," Ladybug retorted, jumping to her feet and swinging her yo-yo to protect herself and Cat Noir. "I think your scheme's going to the dogs!"

Cat Noir groaned as he used his staff to lever himself to his feet. "Nice try, Milady, but I think that _joke_'s for the dogs!"

"Less criticizing, more fighting," Ladybug said, giving him a glare.

"Yes, Milady," he said, holding his hands up placatingly. "Fur-get that I said anything. Cataclysm!" The black energy of the Cataclysm surged from his ring and resolved into a swirling black aura around his right hand. At that moment, Dog Walker flashed out at them with her whip. Ladybug and Cat Noir shared a nod, and Ladybug stopped spinning her yo-yo. Cat Noir jumped in front of her and held up his right arm. The whip wrapped itself around his arm, and Cat Noir tugged, reaching to grab the rope as he did so. The whip was pulled out of Dog Walker's grip, just as he grabbed it with the Cataclysm-infused hand. The whip crumbled to dust, releasing a purple-tinged butterfly.

Ladybug opened up a compartment in her yo-yo and whipped it around. "No more evil-doing for you! Time to de-evilize!" She caught the butterfly in the yo-yo and released it. "Bye, bye, little butterfly." Then she threw a couple of nearby dog treats up into the air, shouting, "Miraculous Ladybug!"

A swirl of red energy flew out of the treats, fluttering through the city and repairing the damage their fight had caused. Dog Walker disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke, replaced by a woman in athletic shorts and roller blades and accompanied by a dozen dogs on leashes. Cat Noir reached up and felt that his bell was back in place. He looked over at Ladybug and grinned. Seeing her answering smile, he held out his fist, which she met. "Pound it!"

"You know, Ladybug," he said, forcing his voice to sound casual, "it's too bad we only ever see each other in the middle of pet-nados like this. Do you want to hang out later? Walk by the river? Maybe get some ice cream?"

Ladybug looked troubled. "Cat…" she began. "I-I'm sorry. I-You remember I told you I'm in love with someone else, don't you?"

His heart fell into his stomach. "I understand," he said, sadly. He turned to walk away.

"No, Cat…" She grabbed his arm before he'd taken more than 2 steps. "I really like you. You're one of my best friends. You are the best partner I could ever hope for. There's no one I trust more in the world than you. It's just… I feel… _that way_… about someone else. Even if he doesn't feel the same."

"Who would reject you?" he demanded, eyes wide in shock. "You're amazing and kind and brave… If he doesn't see that, he doesn't deserve you."

Ladybug blushed. "Thanks, Cat. I just wish _he_ thought that." She looked like she was about to say something else when her earring started to beep. "Oh! I'd better run! Bug out!"

Cat Noir slipped into a nearby alley and muttered, "Claws in." When the transformation was complete, Adrien pulled a piece of cheese from his shirt pocket and handed it to Plagg, who nearly swallowed it whole before disappearing into the same pocket. With a glance in both directions to make sure no one was watching, Adrien stepped out of the alleyway and onto the sidewalk. He pulled out his phone and hit the button to call his bodyguard.

"Sorry for keeping you waiting," he said. "There was another Akuma attack this afternoon and the city's been a zoo. Can you pick me up by the city park?"

His bodyguard grunted back before disconnecting the call. Adrien couldn't remember ever hearing him string more than 2 words together in a sentence; sometimes he went several days without saying even _that_ many! Most of his life, this had bothered him: of the 4 people he saw on a regular basis (3 after his mother disappeared), 1 hardly spoke and 2 more largely ignored him. Only his mother really paid attention to him or showed any indication that she cared for him. His father and Nathalie were always busy working, though his father would occasionally spend a day playing with him – usually when he was working through a creative slump. Since his mother, however, his father had locked himself up in his office 23 hours a day. Now, Nathalie was the closest thing to a parent he had. After his mother's disappearance she had tried to step into that role of friend, confidante, and supporter – at least when she wasn't too busy helping his father. Even still, it had been a lonely life.

Now, however, he had friends. He still, 2 years later, couldn't believe Nathalie had convinced his father to let him attend a regular school. But she had, and he had made the first real friends of his life – after Chloe, that is. He would always be grateful to Nathalie for giving him that chance.

Adrien was pensive on the car ride home. _If only Ladybug would see me the way that I see her._

Walking through the front doors, Adrien was surprised to see Nathalie waiting for him. She still held her customary clipboard, but it hung at her side. She gave him a smile, which changed to concern when she caught sight of his expression, and beckoned him closer.

"What's wrong, Adrien?" she asked. "Did something happen at school? Don't tell me it was that Chloe girl again."

"No." He shook his head firmly. "Everything's fine at school. And Chloe's always been a little… yeah… but no more so than usual today. Everything's fine, really."

"It certainly doesn't look that way," Nathalie observed, eying him critically. "Did someone kick your puppy?"

Adrien started and looked at her. But then he saw the corner of her lip curling up and laughed. "Can you imagine my father's reaction if I brought home a _puppy_?" He fell quiet. Nathalie was a woman. And that made her the closest thing he had to an expert on girls, at least since… "No… yes, actually, there is something wrong."

"What is it? Can I help?"

"No… I mean yes… I mean… I don't know if _anyone_ can help. It's about a… girl," he finally said lamely, his ears burning.

"What about this girl? Is she cute?"

"Oh, she's amazing!" he answered enthusiastically. "So brave, and smart, and kind…"

Nathalie smiled. "So what's the problem? Do you like her?"

"Of course I like her. But she doesn't seem to like me," he replied, frowning. "Or at least not the way I like her."

"You've told her how you feel?"

"Only every time I've seen her, but she always tells me that she doesn't feel the same."

"And who is this girl who seems to be immune to your model-good looks, fame, and fortune? That would make her a special girl, indeed!" Nathalie's eyes twinkled, and her smile grew a little wider.

"Promise you won't laugh?"

Nathalie quickly schooled her expression. "Absolutely. Who is this girl who has so enraptured you, Adrien?"

"It's… Ladybug."

When Adrien looked up at her, Nathalie's jaw had dropped and her eyes widened slightly, but only for a fraction of a second. By the time he looked closer, her expression had returned to its usual professional dispassion. All except her eyes, which were staring off a little into the distance.

"Ladybug…" she muttered. "Of course. But…" She looked back at Adrien and said, "I may have an idea for your Lady problem, but I need to talk to your father first. Go to your room and study for your exams; I'll come see you when I have your father's answer."

Adrien nodded, nonplussed. He wasn't sure what he had expected from Nathalie, but this wasn't quite it. But maybe this would turn out for the best. Maybe she thought his father could design something to go with Ladybug's suit, something that he could give her as a gift. But what _would_ go with Ladybug's red-and-polka-dot suit? He shrugged. Whatever idea Nathalie was toying with, it was more than he'd had 5 minutes ago. He walked up the stairs to his room, shut the door, and flopped on the couch.

Plagg flew out of his pocket and hovered in front of his face. "Why are you so blue, kid?" he asked.

"Do you even have to ask?" Adrien retorted. "Of course it's Ladybug."

"Shouldn't you give it a rest? You're partners. You don't even know who she is under the mask yet," Plagg observed, flying in a lazy backflip. "Maybe she'll come around eventually, once you know a few more things about each other. Things like names."

"But how can I 'give it a rest'?" Adrien demanded. "I've known her 2 years. Shared so much with her. She's my best friend. When we lost our memories a few weeks ago, apparently we even kissed! I thought maybe after that, that she would warm up to me. But no. And today she was even more distant and short with me than usual!"

He fell silent when he heard Nathalie's soft tap on the door. Plagg disappeared among the pillows on the sofa. "Enter," he called.

Nathalie walked in with a smile. "I talked to your father," she said. "It took some convincing, but he agreed to my plan. Why don't you invite your Ladybug over here for dinner Friday night? It's the end of the term, and a good time for a celebration. Tell her it doesn't even have to be a 'date'; your father is grateful to her for the number of times she has saved his life and yours during Akuma attacks. What do you think?"

Adrien jerked his head up in surprise. Whatever he had expected, this wasn't it. At the same time, he could see the brilliance of Nathalie's plan. After all, it's different going on a "date" alone with someone versus being invited for a thank you dinner. It didn't even have to be a date unless they decided it was. Maybe this could work! "I-I will ask her, next time I see her," Adrien finally said. "Maybe she will come over." Nathalie smiled and turned to leave. "And Nathalie? Thank you."

Nathalie smiled at him, crossed her fingers, and left, closing the door behind her.

When the door was shut, Plagg flew out of his hiding place and said, "You realize this will complicate things a little, don't you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, it's not like Cat Noir can exactly invite Ladybug to come over _here_ for dinner on Friday night!"

Adrien's mouth flew open at the realization. "You're right! It will have to be _Adrien_ who invites her over! And then what will happen if this date goes well and we start seeing each other regularly? Do I tell her my secret? Do I hide from her that she's my girlfriend while I'm Cat Noir? What about the future? What if—?"

Plagg burst into laughter. "Kid, you're seriously over-thinking this thing. You haven't even asked her yet; do that, _then_ worry about making retirement plans with her!"

Adrien looked at him in surprise. "What, you think I should do this?"

Plagg shrugged. "Eh, as long as there's plenty of cheese there, I'm all for it!"


	2. Chapter 2

Marinette's brain felt like warmed-over oatmeal leaving school. _The worst part of summer vacation coming _next_ week_, she thought, _is all the final exams we have to take _this_ week!_

"What did you think of that Chemistry test, Marinette?" Alya asked, keeping pace with her as they descended the front steps into the bright sunshine of a warm summer afternoon.

Marinette put her hands up to her face and then threw them up in mock-exasperation. She had lost a lot of studying time the day before because she was fighting Dog Walker. And then afterward she'd forgotten where she had hidden her backpack, and it had taken 2 hours to find it. "Oh, it was just super," she said with a groan. "I completely forgot the periodic table. And that question about identifying elements by their symbols? I labeled 'Pb' as 'Peanut butter' instead of lead!"

"Yeah, I guess having that exam right after lunch wasn't such a great idea," Alya giggled. "But speaking of Chemistry…" She elbowed Marinette and nodded toward the front door, where Nino and Adrien were exiting together.

Marinette blushed. She hadn't really been able to look at Adrien the same way since the wax museum. First she'd made a complete fool of herself and run off while he was making the new mold of his hand (_who steals a wax hand, anyways?_). Then she'd made a complete fool of herself and nearly declared her love for and kissed the _real_ Adrien, thinking it was the statue (_a pity _I_ didn't melt like wax the moment the "wax" statue moved!_). Finally when she'd tried to tell him how she felt in the car on the way home, he'd beaten her to the punch by admitting that he had feelings for someone else. She knew Alya and Nino had meant well in setting the whole thing up and arranging to give them time alone together, but now she wished she'd stayed at home with Manon. The only positive outcome to the entire trip had been that Nadja had at least forgiven her for allowing Manon to be Akumatized for the _second_ time while she was supposed to be watching her.

"You don't have to rub it in that you have a boyfriend and the boy I'm in love with isn't interested," Marinette snapped. Seeing the hurt look in Alya's eyes, Marinette immediately felt ashamed of herself. It wasn't Alya's fault. It wasn't even _Adrien_'s fault. _She_ was the one who lost complete control of her brain and tongue around Adrien. She was the one who never told him her feelings, so of course he had developed feelings for someone else. And of course he would never look at her a second time when she couldn't even say his name without stuttering.

"Alya, I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that," she said, sighing. "But why aren't you going to hang out with Nino today? Everything okay?"

Alya laughed. "Of course everything's fine! Assuming Nino doesn't crack his head open at the skate park, at least. The boys are going to the skate park so Nino can teach Adrien how to skateboard. He asked if we wanted to come watch, but I said no. We need some girl time. And you know he can't help showing off around me. In which case he _would_ crack his skull open. So we are going back to your house where we are going to make macaroons, and then we are going to have fun until school starts tomorrow."

"Thanks, Alya." Marinette smiled. "How do I have a BFF as awesome as you?"

"No idea," Alya grinned back. "It just sort of—" Alya trailed off, looking straight ahead.

Marinette turned to follow her gaze, and groaned inwardly. There was an Akuma flying down the street toward them. "So much for macaroons and girl time," she grumbled under her breath. The Akuma fluttered straight past them and up the street toward the skate park.

"Run, Alya!" Marinette shouted. "Hide over there. I'll go over there behind the school steps."

"Um, right," Alya started hesitantly. "But why can't we…"

Marinette wasn't paying her any attention anymore, however. She dropped to a crouch behind the steps, hidden from Alya by the bushes, and dropped her backpack. Tikki flew out of her handbag and giggled. "Girl time and macaroons sounds like a lot of fun," she said, "but I guess work has to come first."

"Yeah," Marinette answered, smiling down at her. "I'll have girl time with Alya later. Right now, I guess I'm having my girl time with you! Tikki, spots on!"

A couple minutes later, Ladybug arrived at the skate park to find Cat Noir already there, fighting someone. It took her a moment to realize that this particular Akuma must have infected Juleka and Rose at the same time. Half the shirt was Rose's pink blouse; the other half was Juleka's dark brown. The face showed a strange merger of their characteristics, with Rose's eyes and Juleka's eyebrows, Rose's hair in Juleka's style. Across one shoulder, like a sash, she wore a periodic table. As Ladybug tried to wrap her mind around the strange amalgam in front of her, it turned toward her, holding up a lead skateboard and throwing it at her.

"I am Alchemy," it declared. "I may not be brilliant at chemistry, but now I have moved far beyond simple high school chemistry. I can rewrite matter on an elemental level!"

"Sorry," Cat Noir grunted, blocking the skateboard with his staff and deflecting it away from Ladybug. "You know cats can't read!"

"Fool!" Alchemy declared. "Once I have your miraculous, I will rewrite you into mercury!"

"I don't think so," Ladybug called, swinging her yo-yo as a shield. To Cat Noir she muttered, "Did you see where the Akuma went?"

"Yeah," he whispered back. "I saw the whole thing. Rose was upset about her Chemistry exam and Juleka was trying to console her. The Akuma entered the notes they were both holding, and got both of them together. The notes turned into the sash. Any ideas yet, Milady?"

"Working on it," she replied, looking around. "Run around behind her – them – and throw pebbles and sticks at them until I say to stop."

"'Sticks and stones' it is, Bugaboo."

He cut left as she cut right. Alchemy turned to follow Ladybug, who stooped and grabbed a handful of dirt, just as Alchemy raised their hand and a thin wire of carbon reached out from the raised hand toward Ladybug. Ladybug severed the wire with her spinning yo-yo, winding up with her dirt as she did so. Opposite her, Cat Noir had amassed a pile of small twigs and stones. She nodded to him, and released the dirt.

The dirt spattered across Alchemy's chest and arms. Some fell to the ground as regular dirt, while the dirt that hit Alchemy's hands was transformed into a fine white powder. And what hit the sash remained dirt! Across from her, Ladybug could see that Cat Noir's projectiles were also not being transmuted. But then Alchemy turned around, raised both hands, and made a punching motion downward, toward the pile of debris at her feet. The stick and stones at her – their? – feet began melting together and combining with the surrounding air. In an instant, it was a massive plutonium pillar, which Alchemy pushed over on top of Cat Noir.

"Cat!" Ladybug threw her yo-yo to catch the pillar, but she was too late.

"Cataclysm!" she heard, an instant before the pillar would have flattened him. The plutonium turned to powder and melted away as it fell. Cat Noir stood there, hand raised and covered head-to-toe in powder. He looked stunned, but only for a moment. Alchemy formed and threw a ball of copper at him, and he dodged away from it, avoiding Alchemy's flailing arms, and came to a rest standing next to Ladybug.

"Was that the plan?" he asked breathlessly. "Because if the plan was to make fl-cat-cakes, I kinda messed it up!"

"I wanted to test where their power comes from, whether it's what they touch, or what touches them," she answered. "And it's just in their hands. It we don't touch their hands, we'll be fine. And the sash is safe, too. So the plan was for you to use Cataclysm on the sash, but I guess we'll have to figure out something else. Cover me."

Cat Noir stepped forward and spun his staff so fast it became a blur. Ladybug stepped back behind him threw her yo-yo in the air, shouted, "Lucky Charm," and reached out to catch the pair of boxing gloves that fell from the yo-yo.

"Milady," Cat Noir observed, "how did you know I was a world-class boxer?"

A quick glance was all it took for Ladybug to confirm how to use the gloves. She handed a glove to him and instructed, "You go left, and I'll go right. Stick the glove on the hand on your side as you pass, but be careful not to touch the hand when you do it!"

Cat Noir nodded and ran left. Ladybug did the same to the right. At almost the same time, they both spun around to avoid the reaching arms, holding out the glove like a shield as they did so and pushing it home onto the hand. The boxing gloves turned to iron, then to lead, gold, copper, and on in quick succession.

"We don't have much time," Ladybug said. Cat Noir leapt forward, grasped the sash with both hands, and ripped it, just as the edges of the gloves started turning to oxygen. The Akuma was released and fluttered away.

Ladybug opened her yo-yo and spun it around, catching the Akuma inside. "No more evil doing for you! Time to de-evilize!" She released the butterfly from the yo-yo and watched it fly away. "Bye-bye little butterfly!" Finally she grabbed what was left of the boxing gloves and threw them into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"

The moment everything was returned to normal, Cat Noir ran over with his fist out, and they fist-bumped.

"Can you handle the clean-up here, Milady?" he asked, looking around anxiously. "I'm running out of time and there's something I need to do."

"Uh, sure," Ladybug said, nonplussed. Cat Noir disappeared down the street without a backward glance.

"Ugh, what happened?" Juleka groaned, rubbing her head and looking around. Rose sat next to her, arms around her knees, a look of shame on her face.

"You – kind of both got Akumatized together," Ladybug answered, offering a hand to each of them and pulling them up.

"I-I'm sorry," Rose sobbed, blushing in embarrassment. "I was just so upset about that stupid test. I wanted to do well on it, and I studied for weeks, but last night I lost track of time watching TV, so I didn't have time to review, and I just know I failed it, and—"

"Tests are hard," Ladybug said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "especially when you're not ready. But a single grade isn't going to make or break you in school. And anyways, you probably did much better than you think you did."

"You're probably right," Rose finally said. "And if I failed, the teacher will probably give me a chance to retake it or make it up somehow."

"That's the spirit! Now I need to go. Bug out!"

Ladybug ran to the street corner and was just about to swing away when she heard someone yell, "Wait! Ladybug!" Turning around, her heart involuntarily fluttered a little: it was Adrien. She stopped and waited a moment for him to catch up.

"Ladybug," he said, panting to catch his breath. "I'm glad I caught you."

"I'm—too," Ladybug said, kicking herself. She wanted to sound cool, confident, and in control, the way she usually did as Ladybug, but she could never quite manage it around Adrien, even as Ladybug.

"I-I-I wanted to ask you something."

"Yes?"

"Will you come over for dinner Friday night?" It came out in a jumble, such that Ladybug could hardly tell what he'd said.

"I'm sorry?"

Adrien looked embarrassed. "You don't have to if you don't want to. But will you come over for dinner on Friday night?"

Ladybug felt her ears turning red. "What would your father think of you having company over?"

"Oh, he actually approved of it." Adrien nodded vigorously. "He said it's his way of saying thank you for saving him – and me – those times that Akumas tried to hurt us."

"Oh, umm, I, uh…" Ladybug was at a loss. This was the _last_ thing she had ever expected. She wanted to accept, but so many doubts were running around her mind. Then she realized her earrings were beeping insistently. She had to say something fast, or she'd be exposed. "Uh… yes, I'd love to come."

"Great!" Adrien said, breaking out in a huge grin. "We'll see you at seven!"

"Seven," Ladybug repeated. "See you then. Umm, bye."

Her transformation wore off almost the instant she dropped behind some trees in the park. When she stood back up as Marinette, Tikki slipped into her usual spot in Marinette's purse.

"Did I just do that?" Marinette whispered to her purse, the color draining from her cheeks.

"Do what?" Tikki squeaked, pulling out a macaroon and stuffing it into her mouth.

"Accept a dinner invitation from Adrien. As Ladybug."

"That sounds great!" Tikki grinned. "I'm so happy for you!"

"But I can't date him as Ladybug!" Marinette moaned. "What if I make a mistake? What if he figures out who I am? He asked out _Ladybug_ on a date; he didn't ask out Marinette. What happens if he finds out the amazing, awesome, superhero Ladybug _is_ the clumsy, bumbling Marinette?"

Tikki's grin spread even wider. "Marinette," she said, "you _are_ Ladybug, whether you are wearing the mask or not. The Ladybug that Adrien asked out is you. It's your personality that makes her Ladybug, and the bravery and self-sacrifice Ladybug displays were already there before Master Fu gave you the miraculous. In fact, that's _why_ Master Fu chose you. Adrien will _not_ be disappointed if he finds out it's you."

"But-but, what will our relationship be like if I'm Ladybug?" she almost wailed. "What will our _marriage_ be like? I don't want it to be based on _lies!_"

At this Tikki dove back into the purse and refused to emerge for at least 2 minutes. When she finally emerged, there were macaroon crumbs around her mouth, but even that couldn't explain the Cheshire grin plastered across her face.

"Oh, I said yes, so I guess I'm committed now," Marinette finally said with a groan, slumping down against a tree trunk. "But by the end of this I might need to _be_ committed!"

"You'll figure it all out," Tikki said consolingly, a twinkle in her eye. "But you've got a couple of days still. Wasn't there something else you should be doing right now?"

Marinette slapped her forehead. "Of course! How could I forget Alya? We have a girls' night!"


	3. Chapter 3

_AN: I don't normally make a habit of responding to reviews – though I love reading them! However, I do want to respond to the couple I've gotten so far._

_To Mansi2007: You will see in this chapter and the next (part of) how this goes for Adrien!_

_To Guest: I hope you realized why Tikki (and Plagg in chapter 1) are both in favor of this "date." I tried to imply enough for the reader to pick it up without making it explicit. But in "Dark Owl" (2x08) the Kwamis both found out the heroes' secret identities (although Marinette and Adrien didn't). So she knows that Adrien finding out Marinette's secret identity isn't as dangerous as it would be otherwise. The impression I've gotten from the show is that Tikki isn't strictly against them finding out each other's identities; she simply thinks there will be a time and place for it._

* * *

As Friday night approached, Marinette became increasingly anxious, and for a reason that had nothing to do with the nearing summer vacation. Alya gave up on trying to find out why she was so distracted in school, why she kept staring into space at the back of Adrien's head. Every time Marinette would sigh, she heard Alya cough to hide a snort of laughter. But what did she care? This was something she'd been hoping for forever: she had a date with Adrien that night!

When the final bell rang on Friday afternoon, Marinette practically bolted out the door and down the steps, running for home.

"Bye, Marinette!" Alya called out behind her. "You'll have to tell me all about it tomorrow – whatever it is!"

Time positively crawled the rest of the evening after Marinette got home and raced up the stairs to her room. She hardly registered the note her parents had left, that they had closed up the bakery early and were going out for a date night and wouldn't be home until very late. As she climbed through the trapdoor into her room, however, the weight of what she was planning to do that night suddenly hit her all over again. The butterflies that had been fluttering around in her stomach intermittently for most of the week started flying around it in agitated circles.

Marinette collapsed onto her chaise, covering her face with her hands. "Tikki, what am I doing!?"

Tikki flew out of Marinette's bag and came to hover above her face. "What do you mean, Marinette?"

"This is such a mistake!" Marinette wailed. "How could I let you talk me into going through with this? What are we going to talk about? How am I going to spend an evening at Adrien's house as Ladybug without giving myself away?"

"I think you'll have fun tonight! There's so much you don't know about him; why not ask? And you've spent plenty of time with people as Ladybug before without letting something slip. Learning more about him will be worth it. It's going to be a great night."

"Yeah, but this is with _Adrien_," Marinette replied, giving Tikki a look. "And I can't talk right around him _normally_! How am I going to keep my head when I'm on a _date_ with him as _Ladybug_?"

"I'm telling you, you don't have to worry." Tikki gave her a tiny smile and laughed. "Whatever happens between you and Adrien tonight, I'm sure it's all going to turn out okay in the end."

Marinette groaned, pushing her palms into her eyelids. "Maybe I should just ditch it," she said, though without putting any conviction behind it.

"Could you imagine how disappointed he would be if you don't show up?"

"What if he was so disappointed he got Akumatized?" Marinette felt sick at the thought.

"Dinner tonight will be fine!" Tikki said consolingly. "You won't let him get Akumatized. Besides, look at it this way: at least you don't have to worry about what to wear for your date!"

Marinette took a deep breath and blew it out hard. She smiled. "I guess you're right, Tikki." She glanced over at her clock and jumped out of the bed. "I'd better get going; I don't want to be late! Tikki, spots on!"

* * *

Five minutes later, Ladybug leapt from the bakery roof, swung her yo-yo, and looped it around a chimney, swinging herself to another roof. As she ran across rooftops, leaping the gaps between them, using the yo-yo to swing across the streets, she felt the butterflies in her stomach starting to calm down. This, at least, she knew. This, she was good at. And tonight – going as Ladybug instead of herself – might not be the way she imagined her first date with Adrien going, but at least it was happening.

She landed at the front gate of the Agreste mansion at 6:58 and pressed the buzzer at exactly 7:00. The speaker crackled to life instantly, and with it the butterflies in her stomach stirred again.

"Can I help you?" a voice asked. Ladybug recognized it as Nathalie.

"It's—Ladybug. Here for my dinner with Adrien and Mr. Agreste."

"Yes! Ladybug! Welcome! Come right in. We're expecting you. Adrien will meet you at the front door."

The gate swung in, and Ladybug walked up the long, manicured driveway to the front door. Idly, she wondered what it must be like to live in a house this size. _Of course, half the time Adrien seems positively miserable here, so it can't be all _that_ great._

The front door opened on its own before she even got up the steps, and Adrien stood framed in the doorway. He was wearing a button-down shirt, she noticed, blushing a little.

"H—hi," Adrien said, smiling awkwardly, a hint of pink around his ears. "You're… punctual…"

"Hi, A—Adrien," Ladybug replied, mentally kicking herself for how lame she sounded.

"I'm glad you came. I was worried you might not."

"Me, too. I was nervous about it. But I didn't want to let you down, Adrien." She blushed again. She was grateful Adrien had turned away to lead her into the house; she didn't want him to see how frequently she was blushing around him.

"So… how are you tonight?" Adrien asked as he led her into the dining room.

"I'm fine," she replied. She racked her brain for something funny and clever to say, but nothing came. Her mind felt sluggish whenever Adrien was around.

"That's… good."

"Yeah."

As they walked into the dining room, Ladybug gave a nervous laugh. "I really hope tonight goes better than the _last_ 'date' I was on," she muttered to herself quietly.

Not quietly enough. "I know what you mean," Adrien replied with a grimace. "The last time I had dinner with a girl it… didn't exactly end well…"

"It can't have gone as badly as mine did," Ladybug answered, groaning.

"I wouldn't bet on that!" Adrien pulled out a chair for her to sit down at one end of the long table, then took the chair next to her.

They sat quietly for a few minutes. Ladybug chanced a look over at Adrien, who quickly turned away to stare out the window. She turned back to look at a picture hanging on the wall.

"That's your family, isn't it?"

"Yeah. That was taken right before my parents left for China. It's one of the last pictures I have of my mother, before she disappeared."

"I'm so sorry," Ladybug said.

"Thanks. Some days I don't even think about her at all; other days I can barely look at that picture without thinking about the last time I saw her. Without the memories flooding back."

Ladybug reached over and put her hand on top of his. He looked up at her and smiled, though she could see his eyes glistening a little. "Do you want to talk about her? Or do you want to talk about something else?"

"I'd much rather learn some more about Mi—my date," he replied, smiling. "Let me see what's behind the mask. What do you like to do?"

"Well, I'm really into fashion," Ladybug replied enthusiastically. "I love designing and making clothing!"

"Really? I'm not much of a designer – that's my father's job. But I've developed a pretty good eye for fashion. Hazard of the job, I guess." He laughed and smiled at her. "What kinds of clothing do you design?"

"Oh, everything. I've done hats and shirts. A few big projects for school. I always have about a dozen knitting projects going. I've even designed costumes and logos and merchandise for bands!"

"No way! I wonder if I've seen anything you designed!" Adrien gave her an appraising look.

"You might have," she teased coyly. "But I won't tell!"

"Well, a guy can dream, can't he?" Adrien laughed. "Say, I wonder where the chef is with dinner. He said it would be the best meal he's made in his life since he's feeding Ladybug tonight. And I thought my father would be here by now. He's been dying to see you again ever since I told him you'd agreed to come."

The door behind them creaked open, and Mr. Agreste walked in, flanked by Nathalie and Adrien's bodyguard. "I apologize for making you wait, Ladybug," Mr. Agreste said, walking around to the other side of the table. "It's so good to see you this evening. I must admit, when Nathalie told me of my son's interest in you, I was very excited for the opportunity to meet you in person, particularly after recent events. In fact, it's like Christmas has come early for me. Again!"

Ladybug gave him a confused look. "What do you mean, sir?"

"I mean, I've been hoping to meet you for some time, but you always seem to have your friends with you. But now I've got you alone. Alone and in my own house. There's no better opportunity than this. You see, there's a question I've wanted to ask you in person for a long time."

Ladybug tensed up. Beside her, she could sense the look of confusion and discomfort on Adrien's face. Dreading the answer, she finally asked, "And what question do you want to ask me?"

"It's… more of a request, really: your miraculous. Hand it over now, girl."

Ladybug's blood turned to ice. Her face drained of color. Her eyes grew wide in fear. She barely registered the gasp from Adrien in the chair next to her as she stood up, knocking her chair over. "I'm sorry?"

"Your miraculous," Mr. Agreste repeated. "Give it to me, now! Don't make me take it from you!"

Ladybug's eyes darted around the room. The severe look of anger on Mr. Agreste's face. The desire in Nathalie's eyes. The bodyguard's furrowed brows as he looked at Mr. Agreste. Adrien's look of shock, nearly matching her own. Mr. Agreste pressed a button on his wristwatch, and she heard a _whirring_ sound coming from the walls around the room on all sides of her. Looking around, she saw metal panels extending out of the walls, covering both doors as well as the full-length windows along the outside wall.

Mr. Agreste sighed and clucked his tongue. "Very well, girl. I'm sorry it must come to this. But if you will not give it up willingly—" He extracted a jar containing a white butterfly from his jacket and held his arms out "—Nooroo, dark wings rise."

Beside him, Nathalie said, "Duusu, spread my feathers."

As Mr. Agreste and Nathalie transformed into her greatest enemies right before her eyes, Ladybug took a couple hesitant steps backward, nearly stumbling over her chair as she did so. Suddenly, she found there was nowhere left to go. Her back was up against the wall. Mr. Agreste – now turned to Hawk Moth before her very eyes – brandished his cane toward her, the jar still held in his other hand. Beside him, Nathalie had become Mayura and dropped into a crouch, fan held in front of her face. Adrien was standing then, moving towards Ladybug, mouth open and shock in his eyes.

"You see, girl, you're outnumbered and alone," Hawk Moth said with a sneer. He unscrewed the jar, removed the butterfly, and cupped his hands around it. A moment later he released it toward the bodyguard. When the akuma touched the bodyguard's jacket, he fell down to his knees, covered by purple-blue smoke. "Give me your miraculous now, willingly, and I give you my word, you will not be hurt. You can walk right out the front door. I had hoped to take both the ladybug and the cat miraculous at the same time, but—when an opportunity like this presents itself, you have to take advantage of it! I will take yours tonight, and then I'll pounce on that pesky cat when you're no longer around to save his tail!"

Ladybug turned away from Hawk Moth, Mayura, and the newly-risen Gorizilla. A wave of nausea nearly overwhelmed her. This was it. There was no hope. They were going to take her miraculous – maybe even kill her to get it! She'd walked right into their trap. All because – "Adrien! How could you do this?" He was standing so close to her, right in front of her, between her and Hawk Moth. Tears started pouring down her cheeks as she turned on him in fury and despair. "I trusted you! I thought you were my friend! I thought maybe you even _liked_ me! How could you betray me like this!?"

"I—I—I _swear_ I didn't know!" Adrien put his hands up, horror and revulsion in his eyes. "I—I would _never_ betray you!" His eyes narrowed and took on a look of hardened resolve as he turned away from her, toward Hawk Moth. He held a hand back behind him, gesturing for her to stay where she was. "Stay behind me, Milady."

"_Milady"?_ Ladybug's eyes widened. _No…_

"How could you do this?" Adrien demanded of Hawk Moth, glaring angrily straight into his eyes. "I _trusted_ you! I trusted you, and you _used_ me! You let me invite her over, all this time planning to trap her and attack her! You would hurt the girl I _love_! Me! Your _son_! You've put all of _Paris_ in danger. You've put _me_ in danger, again and again! Father, how could you do this? Do it to me? How could you be _Hawk Moth_?"

"Son, there are things happening now that you don't understand," Hawk Moth replied evenly, looking past Adrien at Ladybug. "I am only doing what I must. Now step aside, son, and let me do what must be done."

"No." Adrien didn't shout the word; it came out quietly, but Ladybug could hear the rage building behind it. "I will not let you hurt my Ladybug." He clenched his fists at his side. His shoulders were quivering. He looked ready to burst with energy as he slid one foot back and fell into a familiar crouch. "So long as I can do _anything_ about it, you will never lay a hand on her."

Hawk Moth laughed dismissively. "And what _can_ you do about it, son?"

"Plagg—"

Ladybug's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. Across the room, Hawk Moth mirrored her reaction.

"—CLAWS OUT!"


	4. Chapter 4

_To Rose Tiger: You ain't seen nothin' yet!_

_To joyce schreurs: I hope you still think it's cute after reading this chapter!_

_To SilverLiningSheep: I hope the turn of events was earned. There are still a few more coming between this story and the sequel._

* * *

"CATACLYSM!" The moment his transformation was complete, Cat Noir pulled his staff from its place on his belt, held it out defensively in front of himself, and shouted his special ability on instinct. He immediately regretted the action. _I blew it_, he thought, despairingly. _In so many ways. I invited Milady over, knowing that this could be a terrible idea – though I never fathomed just _how_ terrible it could be. But that means that _I_ handed her over to Hawk Moth – my father! He used me as a _patsy_! Now I've exposed my identity to Hawk Moth. All I can do now is atone for my failures tonight by keeping Milady safe. And I just wasted my one Cataclysm and it's just going to destroy my _staff_!_

The black energy of the Cataclysm emerged from his ring and immediately found and melted into the staff. Then, to Cat Noir's astonishment, rather than crumble to dust in his hands, his staff began to glow and vibrate. The same black aura shone from both tips of the staff that usually enveloped his hand when he used Cataclysm. Too amped up on adrenaline to worry about this unusual turn of events, he turned to face his father. _I've just got one shot at making this right_, he thought, baring his teeth in a feral snarl and giving the staff an appraising spin.

"Stay close to me, Milady," he shouted, glancing back at Ladybug as he did so. She was still rooted in place, mouth open, eyes wide, hands hanging limp at her side, staring at his back. Her yo-yo was still wrapped around her waist, forgotten.

Cat Noir pressed the control on his staff to extend it, spinning it at an angle in front of and above himself as he did so. He took a few steps further into the room, towards Hawk Moth, Mayura, and Gorizilla. Hawk Moth also was still frozen in surprise. Mayura seemed to recover the fastest. With a yell, she hurled her fan at Cat Noir, who effortlessly deflected it to fall harmlessly to the ground without slowing his staff's spin. Longer and longer the staff extended, until it was nearly the width of the room.

"No!" Hawk Moth shouted, finally snapping out of his trance. "You cannot leave! Gorizilla! Stop them!"

The massive purple-blue gorilla took a step toward them. At that moment, Cat Noir gave his staff one last spin, holding it flat horizontally as he did so, and the black aura covering its tips ran along the length of walls to either side of him, between Cat Noir and Ladybug on one side and the villains on the other. Both outside walls exploded outward with a sonic BOOM. A breeze blew through the room, picking up a swirl of dust that obscured the villains on the other side of the room from Cat Noir's view momentarily.

"Now, Ladybug! We need to go, _now_!" Cat Noir collapsed his staff and spun it with his right hand, keeping it between himself and the villains, and grabbed Ladybug's hand with his left hand. The touch startled her into action, and she gripped him back tightly, as if afraid to let go. Cat Noir ran for the nearest hole, dragging Ladybug behind him.

"Gorizilla, grab them!" Hawk Moth shouted as the dust blew away, pointing at them with his cane. Gorizilla bellowed out a roar, pounded his chest, and charged.

Cat Noir had to make a choice. As Gorizilla drew closer, he tightened his grip on Ladybug's hand and yanked, pulling her up alongside him. Just before Gorizilla closed a massive paw around his body, pinning the staff against his chest, Cat Noir threw Ladybug forward, releasing her hand as he did so, and pushed her in the back, hard, through the hole and into the dark lawn. She stumbled once on the rubble that remained from the wall, but caught her balance outside.

"Get out of here!" he shouted. "Run! Save yourself! I'll buy you time!"

Ladybug seemed finally to snap out of it, turned, and screamed, "Adrien!" in a tone of voice that nearly broke his heart before he was pulled back from the hole, back into the wreckage of his dining room. His last sight of her was her hands against her cheeks, terror in her eyes, before the world spun and he found himself face-to-face with Gorizilla.

"Um, good monkey?" he gasped out, trying a smile that only came out as a grimace. Gorizilla snorted back at him angrily.

Gorizilla lifted Cat Noir in a massive fist, but as he did so, Cat Noir noticed that the black energy still sputtered from the tip of his staff closest to his face. He closed his eyes as his finger found the control to extend the staff. Without holding back, he pushed the button as hard as he could, extending it as quickly as possible in both directions. Three things happened, almost at the same time. The top end of the staff caught Gorizilla under the chin, forcing his head back and up. Simultaneously, the bottom end of the staff connected with the floor under Gorizilla's feet. And although most of the Cataclysm's energy had already been expended, the floor turned a faint brown where the staff touched it. Gorizilla's face, still propelled by the lengthening staff, slammed into the ceiling with a jarring thud, knocking several metal plates loose to clatter to the floor. Then one of Gorizilla's feet landed on the exact spot on the floor where the staff had touched. The floor gave way as the foot punched through. Gorizilla roared in shock, flailing around with his arms in a vain attempt to recover his balance and keep himself from falling all the way through.

As he waved, his grip on Cat Noir loosened fractionally. Seizing the opportunity, Cat Noir pulled his legs up to his chest and kicked them both out as hard as he could against the loosening paw that trapped him. The paw opened up, and Cat Noir pushed himself away, out of Gorizilla's reach, toward Hawk Moth. He twisted around and rolled as he landed, springing to his feet face-to-face with his astonished father.

Cat Noir retracted his staff back to sword length, held it in front of himself like an epee, and lunged at Hawk Moth's chest. Hawk Moth recovered his senses and raised his cane to parry the blow. Cat Noir pulled back from the parry and twisted around to thrust at the exposed side, but Hawk Moth dodged away. Around and around they circled, lunging and parrying and dodging.

"All this time!" Hawk Moth shouted, swinging his cane at Cat Noir's head. "All this time, the cat miraculous has been inside my own home, and I didn't know! Half the work already done for me! Cat Noir was my son! All this time!"

Cat Noir ducked. "And all this time I've been fighting to protect Paris, to save people who were being used for evil. All this time I've been trying to stop Hawk Moth. And all this time I've also been begging for a little more _attention_ from him!" He spun around and thrust at Hawk Moth's gut. "All this time I've been wanting to eat _breakfast_ with the man who keeps trying to hurt my friends!"

"You are going to give me your miraculous, son!" Hawk Moth parried the staff aside and pushed forward, elbowing Cat Noir in the chest.

"Yeah, that's not going to happen," Cat Noir coughed, wheezing in a breath. He sensed, more than he saw, movement from his left. A moment later his back was raked with pain as the sharp edge of Mayura's fan cut a long line across it. He grimaced in pain, even as he ducked under Hawk Moth's swinging cane.

"Oh, I am going to get it, son," Hawk Moth snarled. "You're never leaving this house again!" He stepped forward, inside Cat Noir's swinging staff, and pushed him on both shoulders. Cat Noir fell to the ground with a grunt. "You're grounded!"

Cat Noir saw the cane point coming down at his chest and tried to roll away. Even still, the sharp tip caught him in the left shoulder and punched clean through the fabric and into his flesh. Crying out in pain, he reached over and pulled it out, rolling as he did so and twisting the cane out of Hawk Moth's suddenly-slack grip. With a supreme effort he tossed the cane away, rolled to his back, threw his legs over his head in a backward somersault, and spun to his feet. Cat Noir swayed on his feet slightly. "I don't think so, father." He brandished his staff in front of himself. "Regret making me take fencing lessons yet?"

"Not yet," Hawk Moth replied, lifting his fists. "But I do think you've had entirely too much freedom lately. Ever since you went to that school."

Out of the corner of his eye, Cat Noir saw Mayura wind up to throw her fan. He leaned backward, allowing the fan to pass harmlessly over his head, before straightening up and swinging at Hawk Moth's chest. "You know restriction breeds rebellion, father. Honestly, you should be surprised I became a super_hero_, and not a super_villain_ – Agh!" Cat Noir screamed in agony as the fan swung back around to return to Mayura, slicing through his suit and cutting a long line across his abdomen as it passed. He glared at Mayura, who was grinning at him, a manic glint in her eyes. "Although considering where I come from..." he muttered, eyes flickering back to his father.

Mayura opened her hand then, and Cat Noir saw an Amok float out of it, toward the hole in the wall, towards where Ladybug was. He couldn't let it out of the room. He couldn't let them close off Ladybug's only avenue of escape. Without thinking, he thrust out his staff at the Amok, extending it just enough to touch the feather. The Amok was sucked inside the staff. Cat Noir saw Mayura's expression change, even as the staff started to buck in his hand when the unfamiliar power began coursing through it. He swung the staff around his head, concentrating with all his might on the creature he wanted to create. A wispy form started to materialize out of the staff tip. He brought the staff down, pointing it at Mayura. As the staff came down, an enormous panther leapt from the tip, snarled, and pounced.

Mayura screamed, stumbling backward as she did so. The panther coiled its legs and sprang at Mayura, barreling into her chest and attempting to rake her front with its claws. She fell to the floor, terror on her face, arms held up protectively. The panther landed atop her, lowering its open jaws to her throat. Before the jaws could close, however, Mayura snapped her finger, and the panther vanished in a puff of smoke.

Cat Noir turned back to Hawk Moth. During the momentary reprieve, he had retrieved his cane, which he again held defensively in front of himself. Cat Noir sensed Mayura moving to cut him off from behind. He ducked and felt wind against his from where Mayura's fan narrowly missed his head. He was not as quick to dodge the kick she aimed at his back. Cat Noir stumbled forward into Hawk Moth, who pushed him to the ground again. He caught himself on one knee, staff held out to the side, and took a veiled glance around himself at his situation.

Hawk Moth in front of him. Mayura behind. To one side, still trapped in the floor, roaring in fury, Gorizilla swung his massive arms, enraged at his helplessness. He could feel the blood oozing slowly from innumerable cuts along his arms, legs, chest, and back. His left arm was growing numb where Hawk Moth had stabbed him. His strength was flagging. _There's no way out_, Cat Noir thought, fear and an overwhelming sense of defeat finally setting in. _My father _is_ going to kill me_. Then, in a flash of clarity, he held is head up and grinned madly at Hawk Moth. _So what?_ he thought, almost delirious from pain. _All I can do is keep on fighting as long as I can, buy Milady as much time as possible. If he captures me and takes my miraculous, Milady is free, and she can rescue it. And if I die? Well, I died to save the girl I love. I can think of worse ways to go._

Cat Noir slowly pushed himself to his feet. He straightened his back and looked Hawk Moth dead in the eye. Extending his staff to bo-staff length, he held it in front of himself and crouched in a defensive stance. "If you want to take my miraculous, father, you'll have to pry it off my cold, dead finger!"

"We'll see about that," Hawk Moth replied evenly. And then he struck.

Cat Noir raised his staff in both hands to block the cane whipping down at him from above. But the cane never connected. Hawk Moth pulled back at the last moment, unbalancing Cat Noir, who had leaned forward into the block. He never saw the foot coming, as Hawk Moth kicked him, hard, right in the bottom of his rib cage. The force of the kick pushed Cat Noir off the ground. All the air was expelled from his lungs. He felt a couple of his ribs pop, and struggled to draw in another breath.

In midair, Cat Noir barely had time to register that the kick had propelled him straight at Gorizilla. A massive paw was swinging directly at him. Cat Noir pulled his legs up to his chest and closed his eyes, just as the paw connected.


	5. Chapter 5

_To Mommadon: This story is entirely written, as is its sequel. I'm planning a third one which picks up after the second one but is less of a direct sequel, but haven't written that one yet. I'm going to publish 1 chapter/day for the first 2 stories, then the third one after I finish writing it._

_To Rose Tiger: You don't have to wait too long to find out what happened to Cat Noir, though that was quite the cliffhanger!_

* * *

_Adrien is Cat Noir._ It was the only thought racing through Ladybug's mind at the moment. She was dimly aware of the sounds of fighting behind her, in the bright light of the Agreste dining room, which had in an instant turned into a warzone. _How could I have been so blind? How could I have rejected him so many times? One of my best friends in the world, my partner… and he was the boy I love all this time. And he said _I_ was the girl he loves. How could I have been so blind?_

It was a night for surprises. She had thought nothing could outdo the shock and horror of Mr. Agreste's revelation that he was Hawk Moth. _Even when I discovered that Mr. Agreste had the Book of the Miraculous, I didn't want to believe he could be Hawk Moth – for Adrien's sake._ But he _was_ Hawk Moth, and even now his own son – _Cat Noir_ – was fighting desperately against him, against overwhelming odds. Fighting to keep Ladybug safe. _He's fighting for me: the girl he loves._

Gorizilla's roar finally snapped Ladybug out of her reverie. She knew she had to do something, but what _could_ she do? How could she possibly stand up against Hawk Moth and Mayura and Gorizilla? How could she rescue Cat Noir from them? They had planned the whole thing out; the only reason she herself wasn't being beaten senseless – killed! – at this very moment was because Adrien pushed her out of their way. Because Adrien was fighting them off. And from the sounds of the room, however well he must be fighting, he was in a losing battle.

The last words he'd said to her were to "run," that he would keep them busy so she could escape. How could she disobey him? To stay now would be to invalidate his sacrifice. Ladybug turned toward the front gate, pulled her yo-yo from her waist, and spun it. Instinctively she gauged distances of where to aim with the yo-yo to clear the fence and reach the relatively safety of the street beyond. Once away from this deathtrap –warzone – of a mansion, she could de-transform, feed Tikki, and blend in with the traffic. Then she could run to Master Fu's dojo and warn him. Maybe she could get the miraculous for Alya and Nino, even for Chloe, and come back to rescue Adrien. None of them would bat an eye at a rescue mission, especially now that she knew Cat Noir's true identity. All of them would help her save Adrien.

But would Master Fu agree to a rescue? Especially with the cat miraculous holder captured and the cat miraculous taken? Would he allow her to take 4 miraculous back here, possibly handing herself and all of her friends – _and_ all their miraculous – over to Hawk Moth in his own house and on his own terms? All for a desperate, half-baked rescue attempt that was doomed to failure? If she left now, would she ever see Adrien again?

Could she abandon Adrien, even if he had told her to?

No. She would not abandon her partner, her friend, the boy she loved. She would not let him sacrifice himself for her.

Ladybug turned back towards the house, eyes focusing in on the gaping hole through which Cat Noir had pushed her, already running through options in her mind. She spun her yo-yo in a circle, preparing to leap back into the fray. She was just about to use her Lucky Charm when she heard a roar from inside the house, followed almost instantly by a shout of "No!" and an earth-shattering CRACK from over her head.

Ladybug looked up in shock just as the ornate glass window near the high roof shattered outward, raining glass down on her head. She swung the yo-yo above her head, deflecting the glass away from herself, as she suddenly became aware of the dark shape that had broken the glass in the first place. It was Cat Noir.

The calculations ran themselves in her head with little conscious thought. Ladybug released the yo-yo toward a pair of trees half a second after seeing Cat Noir. The yo-yo's string wrapped itself around the trees, creating a makeshift net. A moment later, Cat Noir landed in it, heavily. The string slowed his fall slightly, but even so he slipped through the net, landing hard on his back under the nearer of the two trees. He didn't move.

Heart pounding in her throat, Ladybug ran over to him, throwing herself down next to him. He was hardly breathing, barely moving. She placed her hand on his chest, but pulled it away when she felt how wet and sticky it was, even through her gloves. In the dim light coming from the house, she could see that her glove was covered in blood.

"Cat Noir," she begged, taking his face in her hands, "wake up, please!"

Cat Noir slowly stirred and opened his eyes. "Mi-Milady," he coughed. He tried to sit up but collapsed back.

Ladybug put a hand behind his back, dreading what she would find there. Heedless of the slick blood on her gloved hands, she helped him brace himself and sit up. "What happened, Cat? What's going on?"

He tried to laugh, but it ended in a pained groan. "Well, I think my father might be a little angry with me." He coughed and winced. He looked up into her eyes. "I thought I told you to run."

Ladybug tried to make light of it. "Since when do I ever listen to you, Kitty? And how could I abandon my partner? But we need to get moving! Can you stand?"

"Well, I guess if you're adamant on staying with me, you don't give me much choice." Leaning heavily on Ladybug, he pushed himself to his feet, swaying slightly. "Let's get out of here."

Ladybug wrapped his arm around her shoulders and supported most of his weight, half dragging him to the front gate, which had been pushed ajar by the force of the Cataclysms that had torn the house apart. She pulled him outside and into the shadows, where he leaned momentarily against the wall, hidden in shadow.

"Where are we going, Milady?" Cat Noir asked her, looking up and panting while he tried to catch his breath.

Ladybug gave a nervous glance back at the mansion. Any moment she expected the car to pull out, hunting for them. They wouldn't be safe on the streets, especially with Cat Noir in his present condition. They would never be able to fend off an Akuma right now. They needed to get inside somewhere. They needed somewhere safe, that Adrien's father would never think to look for them. "Master Fu's dojo is the obvious place," Ladybug finally said, "but it's too far, especially with the condition you're in. And anyways we can't risk leading Hawk Moth directly to the Miraculous Box." She sighed in resignation and took his arm to drape it over her shoulders again. "I know a place."

"Lead on, Milady." Cat Noir pushed away from the wall and limped along next to her.

* * *

It wasn't that far, but they couldn't move as fast as normal. Ladybug insisted on hiding in alleyways whenever possible. Twice she turned down a side street, doubling back to make sure they weren't being followed. And all the time Cat Noir kept moving slower and slower. His feet were picking up less and less. The limp in his left leg became more and more pronounced. Finally, Ladybug was practically dragging him along behind her. At last she had to give up.

"Cat Noir, I'm sorry, I can't drag you like this."

"Sorry, Milady," he panted. "You – you leave me here. Take my miraculous to keep it safe. Get away. Save yourself."

"Not gonna happen, Kitty," she said firmly. "Wrap your arms around my neck. I'll carry you that way."

Cat Noir put his arms around her, clasping them over her chest. Ladybug was grateful for the darkness so he couldn't see the bright red of her cheeks. She swung her yo-yo, caught it around a streetlamp, and pulled it taut. "Hold on tight, Kitty," she called. "This could be an interesting ride."

Ladybug winced as Cat Noir's arms slipped around her neck, afraid he was about to fall. Fortunately, he tightened his grip just enough to maintain his hold. She swung gently from streetlamp to streetlamp, each time half expecting Cat Noir's weak grip to loosen. She could feel his head drooping. He rested his forehead on her neck. She could tell that every ounce of energy left in his body was going into keeping his tenuous hold on her neck. Were it not for the augmented strength granted by the miraculous, Ladybug could never have borne his entire weight on her back while swinging between streetlamps, billboards, roof overhangs, and chimneys.

The destination was finally in sight. If he could just hold on another minute, they would be safe – or as safe as they were going to get in this condition. With a colossal heave, Ladybug pulled them into a parabolic arc that would drop them on the roof. Near the top of the arc, however, Cat Noir's energy finally gave out, his grip slackened, and he lost his hold around her neck.

Momentum kept his body near Ladybug through the rest of the jump as she twisted around in midair to face him. _No, no, no_. She wrapped her arms around his chest, slick as it was with his blood. She landed on her back, cushioning Cat Noir's fall with her own body. Without hesitation she slid his inert body off of herself and stumbled to her feet. He wasn't moving. Eyes closed, breathing ragged. Almost as an afterthought she heard the telltale "beep" of his ring, indicating that he would de-transform in a matter of moments.

Ladybug pulled the hatch to her bedroom open, wrapped her arms around Cat Noir under his armpits, and pulled him backwards through the hatch and down onto her bed. Cat Noir's condition was critical and he needed medical treatment, but she couldn't take him to the hospital; the hospital would have to call his father, and Adrien would be recaptured. She could hold onto his miraculous and bring him to the hospital anyways, but she couldn't bear to lose her Cat Noir, especially now. Especially after all of this. She shifted him into position on his back on the bed. Then she collapsed next to him and groaned, closing her eyes.

A moment later there was a flash of green light as Cat Noir de-transformed. Ladybug looked over to see Adrien lying on her bed. Plagg lay next to his head, flat on his back, eyes closed. Plagg turned toward her and opened one eye with a groan.

"Ugh, so hungry – What just happened?" Plagg wheezed out. "I feel worse than after Pompeii! Oh, hi, Ladybug," he said, as if he had only just registered her presence in the room. "Umm… surprise…" Plagg turned his head toward Adrien, who still lay motionless on the bed. "Oh, no…"

Ladybug pushed herself up to kneel on the side of the bed as Plagg jumped up to hover next to Adrien's face. Although Adrien's clothes were perfectly intact, blood was soaking through them from innumerable wounds. "I thought our suits were supposed to be impervious," Ladybug whispered, putting a hand on Adrien's forehead and giving Plagg an accusing look.

"They are," he replied, touching the bloodstain over Adrien's shoulder very tenderly, "but not to the weapons of other miraculous holders."

Ladybug started breathing heavily. Her pulse quickened. She couldn't get a full breath. Her blood was turning to ice and she felt her face draining of color. She couldn't think about anything except the red blood staining Adrien's shirt. There was just so much of it, more than she thought a body could even hold. "What are we going to do, Plagg?" she whispered, eyes dilated in panic.

"'What are we going to do?'" Plagg echoed angrily. He drifted over to rest directly in front of her face and grabbed her by the mask, staring into her eyes. "You're _Ladybug_!" he shouted, shaking her head. "Why don't you try _saving_ him!?"

"Oh, uh, right," she muttered. She drew in a shaky breath, held it a moment, and released it slowly. Then she limply swatted Plagg away and bent over Adrien, examining the pattern of bloodstains. "Lucky Charm," she muttered, and a red first aid kit dropped out of the yo-yo she still held in her hand.

She opened the first aid kit and pulled out boxes of gauze and bandages, a tube of antibiotic ointment, and even a spool of surgical thread and a surgical needle. "Bring me the shears off my desk," she said without looking away from Adrien. She grabbed the lighter from a shelf next to her bed, lit a candle, and opened the packaging on the surgical needle. By then Plagg had returned with the shears, which she used to cut Adrien's shirt off him. Pulling it apart to expose his bare chest, Ladybug stifled a gasp. She couldn't count how many little cuts covered him, but the little ones were dwarfed by a long red gash running the width of his abdomen. And then there was the gaping hole in his shoulder, ringed in angry red skin, which appeared to have been pulled and torn by continued movement during the fight and their ensuing flight. She threaded the needle, held it over the flame for a moment, and started sewing up the cut across his abdomen. As she did so, she ordered, "Grab those cloths off my desk and see if you can slow the bleeding from his shoulder."

Plagg hurried to obey her, pressing several swatches of cloth to the hole. As the cloths became soaked, he switched them out for new ones. By the time Ladybug finished sewing up the long cut, the bleeding in Adrien's shoulder had slowed to a steady trickle. With a wince, Ladybug pulled the plastic end off her curling iron, turned it on, and waited a moment before pressing it into the hole, cauterizing the wound. "Sorry," she whispered softly, putting a hand to his cheek. Adrien still had not stirred since his de-transformation.

While Ladybug covered the wound with gauze, taped it in place, and fashioned a sling for the arm, Plagg moved to apply pressure to the other cuts on Adrien's chest. "Marinette," he said a few moments later, "it looks like his pants are soaking through now, too. I think he's got another cut in his leg."

Ladybug muttered a curse as she continued sewing up another long cut across Adrien's upper chest. "I'm a little busy at the moment," she retorted. "Can you check on it?"

Plagg floated up in an arc before diving into and through Adrien's leg. A minute later he reemerged, saying, "It's pretty deep, but it only hit flesh. But if it had gone too much deeper, it would have nicked the artery and he'd already be dead."

Finishing up the stitches she had been working on, Ladybug turned to his leg. Without stopping to think, Ladybug cut away the jeans, exposing the newest problem. With a sigh of resignation, she started sewing the cut up. _There are just so many injuries, I can't possibly find all of them._

"What's wrong with his ribs?" Ladybug asked, not looking up from the thigh wound. "It looks like there's some bruising near the bottom of his ribcage."

Plagg dropped into Adrien's chest for a moment before popping his head back out. "Well, he cracked three ribs, but they are still mostly intact, just some tiny fractures. A couple of shards broke off, though, and they're digging into the tissue."

"Apparently you can just float around inside of us. Can you do something about those?"

Plagg laughed derisively. "Which part of 'Kwami of Destruction' don't you understand? Trust me, kid, you don't want me playing around with your boyfriend's ribs!" He pulled himself out and hovered a couple inches above Adrien's chest. "When you let Tikki out, she'll be able to do something."

"When I de-transform, the first aid kit will disappear, and there's no guarantee that if I used Miraculous Ladybug right now that it would heal these injuries since they were caused by another miraculous holder and that apparently makes them immune to miraculous magic or something. So I can't exactly do that yet," she retorted, biting back her anger – Plagg didn't deserve it – and tying up the thread on the stitches in his leg. "What does his back look like?"

"You'd better roll him over and take a look at this," Plagg answered a minute later. "This one is pretty bad."

At least five minutes later, Ladybug was finally finished sewing up the cuts on Adrien's back. Ladybug sat back against the wall to observe her work. Adrien's clothes were in shreds where she'd cut him out of them. He was still unconscious, though his chest at least rose and fell evenly. All of the injuries were bandaged or sewn. It looked like he would make it. But his skin was taking on a concerning color from the blood loss.

She let out a breath. "What are we going to do now?"

"Coming up with plans is _your_ thing, remember?" Plagg replied, curling up on the pillow next to Adrien's head and closing his eyes.

"Right," she said. "We know who Hawk Moth and Mayura are now, but they also know who Cat Noir is. We need Master Fu, but we can't let them follow us there. We need…" she sat up "friends. I need to make a call."


	6. Chapter 6

_To Guest: I didn't say this story _is_ a sequel; I said it _has_ a sequel which I've written and will publish after this story is fully published. I'm sorry I wasn't clearer._

_The order of events is: the series up to "The Puppeteer 2" (as much as is available on Netflix now), then this story, and then there's a direct sequel that is yet to be published._

* * *

Adrien's first sensation was of lying on a marshmallow. _If this is death_, he thought, _I think I could get used to this._ An instant later, however, the pain came roaring into his consciousness with a vengeance. His chest was on fire. His back felt like it had been peeled apart. His legs ached. His ribs shifted slightly when he drew in a breath. It felt like someone had shoved a flaming torch into his shoulder. So he was definitely still alive.

Then the memory of the evening flooded back to him. Seeing Ladybug at his house. His father demanding her miraculous. His father transforming into Hawk Moth in front of his horrified eyes when she refused. The terror in Ladybug's eyes. His Lady accusing him of betrayal. His transformation. The fight, and its results. If he was still in his father's clutches, he did not want to open his eyes, not until he was ready to face the horror that his life had suddenly become. But he could still feel the ring on his finger. Surely his father would have claimed the miraculous for himself already, right? He couldn't be in his house. Then where? He could feel bandages covering most of his chest. He was certainly on a bed; he felt bed sheets over him. The only solution was to open his eyes.

He squinted against the brightness of the lights and tried to lift a hand to shade his eyes. His arm felt sluggish; it took a moment for it to respond. When he looked back he could make out a shape blocking part of the light above him. As he lifted his hand, the shape moved closer, blocking out all the light and resolving into a face he recognized far too well. The face he'd been hoping to see more than any other at that moment.

"Mi-Milady?" His voice rasped. Ladybug held a glass to his mouth and tipped some water in.

"Adrien," she sighed when he had drunk a few sips. "Thank goodness. You're awake."

"Catch the number of that train?" he chuckled, trying to push himself up. The movement caused something to shift in his chest, and he fell back onto the pillow with a groan of pain.

"Easy there, Kitty," Ladybug said, putting an arm around his shoulders and gently leaning him forward. She slid another pillow behind his back to prop him up. "You're hurt pretty badly."

"No kidding, Bugaboo," he grunted, forcing a grin. "You should see the other guy."

"Is the other guy a 24-foot blue gorilla?"

"Huh. I guess we had the same dream, then."

She eased herself into a sitting position on the side of the bed, looked into his eyes, and said, "Yeah, but my dream involved having dinner with the boy I'm in love with and seeing what might happen from there. It had nothing to do with finding out he's been my partner this whole time, _or_ that his father is our arch-nemesis…"

"About that," Adrien replied, looking back into her eyes. "Do you believe me now? That I would never betray you?"

"After tonight?" she let out a peal of laughter. "Kind of hard to ever doubt you again, Cat!" Her face turned suddenly serious. "But we've got a serious problem, and we need to do something about it. Fast."

Adrien leaned back and started to close his eyes. Before he did, he heard the beeping from Ladybug's earrings. "Milady, you're about to transform back." She was looking away from him, but didn't make a move to find cover. He took a closer look around the room. The posters on the wall – many of them showing his own face staring back at him. The computer, chaise lounge, sewing machine… he should recognize this room. He'd been in here before. "Wait… I know this room. This is Marinette's room, isn't it? Why did you bring me here? Where is Marinette? Does she know who you are? Did you tell her who _I_ am?"

Ladybug finally met his eye again, as the red aura started to glow around her midsection, tracing up toward her head and down toward her feet simultaneously, revealing a white shirt with flowers on the front. "The answer to all of those questions," she said, sudden resolve in her eyes, "is… yes."

The red aura disappeared. Adrien gasped and opened his mouth to speak. No words came out, so he sat there, gaping at the girl sitting on the bed next to him. "Marinette?" he whispered. "All this time?"

"Yes," she nodded, blushing from embarrassment. She held out a hand to catch the red Kwami who floated down next to her head.

"I thought you didn't want me to know who you were, Mi-Marinette."

"I didn't. It could put us both in danger." She laughed derisively. "Danger. I guess our secrets put us in enough danger tonight."

"What?" His brain still hadn't caught up to everything that was happening.

"I mean, if I'd known who you were from the start, I would have accepted any one of the millions of times you asked me out as Cat Noir. And if you'd known who I was, are you telling me you would have rejected me every time I tried to tell you I liked you as Marinette?"

"You liked me?" he asked, eyes widening. He grinned.

"Why do you think I kept telling you 'no' as Cat Noir?" she retorted. "Why do you think I could never string together a complete sentence around you?"

"Wait… so the boy you liked, the reason you could never love me, that you always rejected me… was _me_?" Adrien threw his head back and laughed. The laugh instantly transformed into a cough, and he let out a groan of pain.

Marinette leaned closer. "You shouldn't breathe so hard," she said, concern written on her face. "You cracked three ribs, but not all the way through. I asked Plagg to fix them, but he wouldn't try. Maybe Tikki can do something."

"So how has this little imp been?" Adrien asked, glancing over at Plagg, who was sitting up on the pillow staring at him. "Did you eat every block of cheese in the house?"

"Actually, he hasn't said anything about food," Marinette replied, patting Plagg's head. "He has hardly left your side since you de-transformed."

"Huh," Adrien grunted. "What do you know?"

"Yeah, don't read too much into it, kid," Plagg said, looking away. "But seriously, where's the food already?"

"I have some Camembert in my…" Adrien stopped, suddenly aware that his shirt was missing. Thinking about it, he realized that the rest of his clothing was missing, too. He looked up at Marinette, who blushed bright red. Adrien felt his own cheeks reddening to match as he pulled the bed sheets up a little further.

"I—kind of had to cut your clothes off to patch you up," she said, looking down at the foot of the bed. Following her gaze, he saw his bloodstained clothes lying in a discarded heap. "Unfortunately, the cheese is going to be covered in blood. Sorry. There's plenty of food down in the bakery, and my parents should still be out. Help yourself."

Plagg immediately disappeared through the floor, as Adrien yelled after him, "Don't eat _everything_! Mr. Dupain still needs something to sell tomorrow!" He looked back at Marinette. "You're going to regret telling him to help himself. He claims that he personally caused the Great Irish Potato Famine!"

Marinette giggled, tossing a macaroon to Tikki as she did so.

Adrien looked back down at his chest. "You really sewed up all of these cuts?" he asked. "That's a little different than sewing clothes."

"I hope I did a good job," Marinette said, looking away and blushing. "You might have some scars, though. What will that do to your modeling career?"

"Well, considering that I primarily modeled for my father, and _he_'s the one who _gave_ me all the scars… I think he'll understand. Either way, I don't think I'll be doing any modeling for a while. Besides, my modeling career is the _least_ of our worries at the moment."

"Yeah… about that." Marinette looked serious as she shifted closer to him on the bed and put her hand on Adrien's. "I've got a plan, but it will only work if you can move. Are you up for a walk?"

Adrien pushed himself up, wincing and gritting his teeth against the pain. "For you, Milady, I'd do more than that."

"I believe you," she said, putting an arm around him and pulling him over to lean on her shoulder, "but you're still not strong enough. Tikki?"

Tikki had finished her macaroon by this point. She smiled at Marinette, looked over at Adrien, and flew straight at his chest. Adrien braced for the impact, but it never came. He gave Marinette a questioning look.

"They can fly through things, right? So I discovered from Plagg tonight that 'things' includes us." She shrugged.

Adrien felt a strange warmth spreading through his body from the spot where Tikki had vanished. He suddenly felt a surge of energy coursing through him. He stretched his neck to either side, and as he did so, he felt something pop in his chest. The nagging hitch in his breathing that had been there since he'd woken up suddenly vanished. Tikki emerged from his chest and dropped into Marinette's outstretched hand, taking the offered macaroon and biting into it.

Adrien stretched his chest, puffing it up with a deep breath. He reached down to probe his ribs, which felt solid again. He was still sore, but the worst of the pain was gone. "Thanks," he said gratefully.

"You're welcome, Adrien," Tikki squeaked. "We normally avoid using our powers apart from the miraculous and its holder. Our power can be somewhat unpredictable, so we need the miraculous to focus it, and the miraculous holder to direct it. But for something like this… I can make an exception."

"I think I'm ready," Adrien said, pushing himself up and reaching for the ladder. As he did so, he became suddenly lightheaded, and the room swayed slightly around him. He put out a hand, which Marinette took and pulled him back onto the bed.

"Slow down, Kitty," she said, relief evident in her voice. "I think you still need a few minutes. But we still need to talk about what we're doing. The only place that's going to be safe for us is Master Fu's dojo, but we have to be careful that Hawk Moth can't follow us there. But I'm going to get us there. Before you woke up, I called Alya. She and Nino will meet us at the bridge over the Seine."

Adrien looked over at her in surprise. "Alya? Why did you call her? Alya knew your identity, and you didn't tell me?" He stopped for a moment and thought. The answer came in a flash. "Wait… Alya is Rena Rouge, isn't she? And that makes Nino Carapace." He gave Marinette an appraising look, and she nodded approvingly. "That makes sense. Knowing who you are, it's actually kind of obvious. Of course you would give the fox miraculous to your best friend when you needed help. And besides, who better than your _other_ number-one fan? And when Carapace first appeared, Alya and I were both trapped, and Nino was nowhere to be found. But did they know your secret?"

"No," she shook her head adamantly. "I didn't want anyone to know, even my partner. No one knew my secret. They've known each other's identities since Heroes' Day, though; I had to give them their miraculous at the same time. And I'm pretty sure Alya had Nino pegged from the start. And as for why I called them, I think we need our friends close by right now. _All_ our friends."

"'All our friends,'" Adrien echoed. "You called Chloe, too?"

"Not exactly. That's going to be… difficult, since your father knows who she is. But right now, we need to move."


	7. Chapter 7

To Rose Tiger: Things certainly won't be easy. Time will tell what it means for their partnership that Adrien knows her identity.

* * *

Getting ready for the trip to Master Fu's dojo took much longer than Marinette had expected it to. The only article of clothing in her room that would fit Adrien was a Jagged Stone T-shirt she had been designing for his upcoming album. Her father's clothes were far too big for Adrien; her own were too tight on him. Finally she ran down to her parents' bedroom and found a pair of her mother's old sweatpants for Adrien to wear, along with one of her father's hats.

Once she had found Adrien some clothes to wear, Marinette turned to the next problem. She showed him a bottle she'd found in her parents' bathroom, grimaced, and said, "I'm sorry, but your hair is just too recognizable, especially with your face on every billboard in the city. We need to hide your hair somehow."

He eyed the bottle of hair dye warily. "Okay," he said finally. "Do it."

Marinette started to open the bottle. "Ideally, we should probably cut your hair, too, but—"

"Well, I guess you'd better cut it," he interrupted, putting his hand on hers. "It's okay. I trust you. There's no one I'd trust more at the moment."

Cutting and dyeing Adrien's hair took another 30 minutes. Marinette cringed to think about how confused Alya had sounded on the phone, how worried she must be by now, after the long delay in their planned rendezvous. But she couldn't call Alya and check in; for all she knew, Mr. Agreste's first move after they fled might have been to send someone to watch Adrien's best friend. Which could include his best friend's girlfriend, too. Even calling Alya the first time had been a risk. What if she'd been at Nino's house, instead of the other way around? What if someone had been watching them? What if they were recognized on the way to the dojo? All they could do now was trust their friends. They'd never let them down before; hopefully this night of firsts wouldn't add that to the list.

It was almost midnight by the time Marinette and Adrien were ready to leave. Marinette had put on a hat of her own and swapped her customary pigtails for a single ponytail. Adrien's hair was buzzed short, dyed black, and covered with a baseball hat pulled low to hide his eyes. He wore one of her father's old sweatshirts over the Jagged Stone shirt and her mother's ill-fitting sweatpants. Looking at him, Marinette finally had to admit that no one could have recognized him, even if he were standing directly in front of one of his billboards. _Especially_ if he were standing in front of a billboard!

Although Tikki had replenished his blood supply, giving him a welcome infusion of energy, Adrien was still weak from his battle. Marinette draped his arm over her shoulder and allowed him to lean some of his weight on her. As they left the bakery, Marinette turned to lock the door.

Adrien laughed. "To think, you were actually telling me the truth that time I landed on your roof and you said you were there because you were in love with me!"

Marinette joined in the laugh. "You realize now why I said it, right?" she asked.

"You mean it _wasn't_ because you were madly in love with me?" he replied in mock outrage. He put a hand to his forehead. "And all this time I've been sustained by the thought of how great your love for me was!"

Marinette snorted and nearly doubled over. After the stress of the evening, it felt good to let loose and actually laugh. Especially since this meant Adrien really _was_ okay. She cocked her head and said, "Well, I guess that really was the case, wasn't it? But I said it because I was afraid you were going to put together that the reason I'm never far from you and Ladybug after an Akuma is gone was because I'm Ladybug."

"Huh," he replied, eyes going wide. "Honestly, it never even occurred to me that you could be Ladybug. I just figured you were a Ladybug/Cat Noir fangirl or something."

"Wait, do you mean to tell me I declared my undying love for you, had the world's worst date, and accidentally got my father akumatized, and all for nothing?" Marinette burst into laughter. "If my parents ever find out that that's why Papa was Akumatized, I'll never hear the end of it."

"They don't know?"

"Again, _no one_ knew before tonight, apart from Master Fu," she answered, giving him a look. "And even after tonight, I hope to keep the number as low as possible."

"Right." He gave her an appraising look. "So when you mentioned the last 'date' you'd been on ended poorly and I said mine had, too… we were talking about the exact same 'date,' weren't we?"

"If you meant the time my father completely flipped his lid about my first 'boyfriend,' wanted to add 'Cat Noir' to the name of the bakery, turned into a giant rage monster after you said you were in love with Ladybug and I faked a tantrum, and then locked me in an impenetrable maze atop a vine… then yes." Marinette smiled at him. "I'm still not sure which ended worse: that date or this one."

Adrien smiled back at her. "If you ask me, both turned out okay in the end. Both ended with me spending time with Milady. But after this one I found out who Milady was. So even with everything else that happened tonight, I'm still glad I invited you over."

Marinette was grateful that they had just passed a streetlight; the shadow it cast on her face hid the bright red blush that filled her cheeks. Glancing up into Adrien's face, she caught him smiling at her, a light red in his cheeks as well. But when she looked back, he had turned to look down an alley they were passing.

"Of course, I really hope our _next_ date will end a little more romantically than this one," Adrien added.

"You mean you don't think coming over to my house for some romantic late-night emergency surgery is a good ending for a date?" Marinette teased.

Adrien snorted. "Considering how we spend our nights, it probably is!" Then he pulled up short and gave her a funny look. To Marinette's questioning glance, he asked, "So when I said that anyone who doesn't appreciate how amazing you are didn't deserve you, I was talking about… myself, wasn't I?"

Marinette giggled. "Well, kinda, I guess. But," she went on, "in your defense you were also the one saying how amazing I am. So I guess you _did_ appreciate me, after all!" She squeezed him gently. "After what you did tonight, I don't know of anyone more 'deserving' than you." _I just wish I _deserved_ that level of devotion, especially after I froze and you nearly died._

They continued on in silence, walking down the deserted streets. Marinette hoped that anyone passing or looking out a window would just see a boy with his arm around his girlfriend, and not think any more of them than that. But Marinette kept turning her head at every noise, fearful that it could be the Agreste limo, stalking the streets, looking for any sign of the wayward son. She peered intently into every shadowy back alley, wondering if an Akumatized victim could be lurking in the shadows, enhanced senses specifically attuned to locate Adrien. For the first time since finding the earrings, meeting Tikki, and fighting the first of Hawk Moth's minions together, Marinette was aware of just how powerful Hawk Moth might truly be, how much power he could give to his victims if he chose. Even the horrors of Heroes' Day, when half of Paris was Akumatized and all her allies – all but the one standing by her side right now – had been mind-controlled and forced to turn against her, even that had only scratched the surface of what Hawk Moth was capable of. If he could grant any ability he chose, could he turn someone into a bloodhound capable of detecting her specific scent and tracking her to the ends of the earth, finding out where she lived and who she was? Could he grant telepathy, allowing someone to probe her innermost thoughts, expose all of her secrets without her ever being aware of it? Perhaps it was lucky that so many of Hawk Moth's victims were so young and inexperienced. Perhaps it was lucky that so many were blinded by anger, fear, and shame, such that they could not think straight to take full advantage of their potential powers; if they ever did… Marinette shuddered to think.

The walk from the bakery to the Seine took far longer than Marinette had hoped it would. Ordinarily she would have called a cab or caught a bus; at this time of night the buses were not running on a regular schedule. And Mr. Agreste would certainly have contacted the cab companies to look out for his son. As Adrien's strength flagged, Marinette worried that he would not make it to the meeting with Alya and Nino, but he never complained. Twice his grip on her shoulder tightened reflexively as he stumbled over uneven sections of pavement. Marinette squeezed back in comfort and stood still so he could catch his balance.

Finally, as Marinette felt herself nearing the end of her own strength, she saw the bridge over the Seine, lit up by streetlamps. And in the middle of the bridge, standing under one of the streetlamps, she could see two people holding hands, looking in opposite directions.

Marinette guided Adrien into the shadow just below the bridge on their side, where he leaned against the wall. Then she cupped her hands around her mouth and hooted like an owl. A couple minutes later, she heard steps on the bridge as Alya and Nino came into view, walked down off the bridge, turned the corner, and stood in front of them.

"Okay, Marinette, you really owe me an explanation!" Alya said, giving Marinette a glare. "No, check that, you owe me a _lot_ of explanation! Who on earth was that 'Chinese teacher' you sent us to? Why did he have our miraculous? And why did he give me the bee miraculous along with the fox? How do you even _know_ about the miraculous? What's going on tonight; why all this cloak-and-dagger stuff? And why are we meeting you out here in the shadows in the middle of the night with… wait… is that… _Adrien?_"

Marinette held her hands up in a placating gesture. "I promise I will explain everything soon, but we don't have time right now. We need to get moving. Alya, you are coming with me." Alya threw her hands up in resignation and shrugged. "Nino, you need to bring Adrien back to Master Fu's dojo. You _need_ to keep Adrien safe no matter what, and you need to keep him away from his father, his bodyguard… anyone connected to his father!"

Nino looked troubled, but he nodded anyways. "Uh, Marinette?" he started, hesitantly. "No offense, but… something seems different tonight."

"It is," Marinette said. "But explanations will have to wait." She took a step away from the bridge, stopped, and turned back. "Oh, and try not to use your miraculous unless you absolutely have to. Especially near the dojo. We don't want to attract attention."

"Not a problem," Nino grinned. "Tonight, discretion is my middle name! Let's go, dude!" He slapped Adrien's back enthusiastically. Adrien groaned in pain. Nino looked stricken. He hesitantly put a hand on Adrien's shoulder and looked at him. "Oh, uh, sorry, dude. But…"

Adrien shook his head and grimaced. "I'll tell you in a bit."

"Uh, right." Nino and Adrien left to walk over the bridge, Adrien leaning heavily on Nino's shoulder as they went.

Marinette led the way as she and Alya walked back toward the city. She didn't want to talk any more than she had to. The shock of everything that had happened was still too fresh. And she was afraid that if she said anything, she might chicken out of doing what she was about to do.

Alya finally broke the silence after two blocks. "Marinette?"

"Yeah?"

"You know that I'd do literally anything for you, right, girl?" Alya asked.

Marinette sighed. "I know. Believe me, I know. You're my best friend, and I've hated keeping you in the dark – and not just tonight. I promise I'm going to fill you in soon, but there's still one thing we need to do tonight. Then Adrien and I will tell everyone exactly what's going on at the same time." She looked over at Alya, who still looked troubled and confused. "I'm sorry. But right now we need to deliver the bee miraculous."

"You know that raises even _more_ questions, right?" Alya asked, jogging to keep up with Marinette as she ducked down a dark alleyway. "Isn't Ladybug normally the one who brings the miraculous to me and Nino and Chloe?"

"She is," Marinette said with a coy grin. "And that's why _you_'re here."

The confusion on Alya's face became even more pronounced. "Are you going to explain that statement some time before we're old and grey and wrinkly?"

Marinette steeled herself. "You want an explanation?" she asked. She hated how much her voice shook. She took a deep breath and plunged ahead. "Tikki, spots on!"

As the red glow faded from before her eyes, Ladybug fought back a laugh. Alya's eyes had grown to the size of saucers and her jaw had dropped open in shock. She looked like a fish out of water with her mouth opening and closing. She was trying to say something, but no sound was coming out. "You-you're… you're…"

"Alya, shouldn't you be…?"

Alya's mouth snapped shut. "Oh, uh… Trixx, let's pounce!"

A moment later Ladybug squeezed her best friend's shoulder, smiled at her, and said, "Right, now let's go get our Queen Bee!"


	8. Chapter 8

_To Rose Tiger: This story will more or less conclude with the reactions (Alya's is in this chapter). There are still 5 chapters left in this story._

* * *

_I don't believe it_, Rena Rouge thought as she followed Ladybug across rooftops through Paris. _Marinette is Ladybug. My best friend. All this time. All those times we talked about who could be behind the mask, all those times we giggled about increasingly-farfetched theories. And I was doing it _with_ the real Ladybug!_ Rena Rouge felt shocked at the unexpected revelation, but she quickly realized that shock and anger weren't the emotions that were dominating her at the moment. Perhaps eventually she would be angry with Marinette for hiding the truth from her, for all the times she had run off and disappeared. Perhaps even for putting herself in danger with just Cat Noir to back her up, when Alya had proved that night that she would do _anything_ for her best friend.

No, the emotion that was coming to dominate her at the moment, she was surprised to discover, was one of gratitude. Yes, Marinette had hidden the truth from her, but she had done it to protect her. Marinette saved their school from Akumas a dozen times a month, including saving Alya herself from being Akumatized – twice! Marinette chose her to become Rena Rouge when she needed assistance. And – she blushed at the thought – if Marinette was Ladybug, that meant that _Marinette_ was the one who shut her and Nino into a cage at the zoo while she went to deal with Alya's Akumatized father. So _Marinette_ gave them nothing to do for hours on end except laugh at their two best friends and everyone's misunderstanding of what was supposed to happen on that "date." In other words, _Marinette_ caused her and Nino to start dating!

And for some reason Marinette had decided to tell her that she was Ladybug tonight. After hiding it for all this time, she'd come clean. Something must have happened, but what could it have been? Maybe it involved whatever had been distracting her all week. It must have been serious for Marinette to reveal her secret. And obviously it involved Adrien. And somehow Marinette was talking normally around him now. _That, more than anything else, makes tonight surreal!_

Something big was happening, and Marinette had called her. Not her hero. Not Ladybug; Marinette. Her best friend. She would not let her down.

Rena Rouge and Ladybug landed on the roof of a building across the square from Le Grand Paris five minutes later. Ladybug beckoned Rena Rouge to stay in the shadows while she stood tall out in the open, silhouetted by a spotlight from the hotel roof.

"Ma-Ladybug? You know all those questions I asked you before?" she asked quietly, looking up at her. "At the moment, I don't care about any of them. I just want to know what I'm doing here."

Ladybug turned to her with a rueful smile. "You're here because we're walking into a trap, and I'm going to spring it."

Rena Rouge furrowed her brow. "You know it's a trap, and we're here anyways? For Chloe? Wow."

Ladybug shrugged. "You'll need to use Mirage to create an illusion around yourself so no one can see you. I'll draw off whoever's waiting for us at the hotel, leaving you free to sneak in and give Chloe the miraculous. Then take her back to Master Fu's under the illusion and wait for me." And without waiting for an answer, Ladybug jumped off the roof, threw her yo-yo, and swung out into space toward the hotel. As Ladybug came down on the hotel roof, Rena Rouge saw a flash of blue spring out from behind the balcony wall to meet her. Mayura kicked Ladybug in the gut as she landed, sending her flying backward, away from the hotel and into space. Rena Rouge could hear her friend grunt at the impact. Then Ladybug looked back up, threw out her yo-yo, and caught Mayura around the waist. Mayura's expression changed to shock as she was pulled off-balance and fell from the roof after Ladybug.

Ladybug whipped the yo-yo back to herself and released it toward the next building, looping it around a piece of masonry and swinging herself around. She landed catlike on a window ledge, turning to look back at Mayura as she did so.

In midair, Mayura had kicked herself away from the hotel toward the building across the street. Holding her fan out in front of herself, she dug the fan into the side of the building to stop her fall and pulled her legs up, launching herself toward Ladybug's building and holding her fan out like a mountaineer's pick. Ladybug leapt from her window ledge and threw her yo-yo, swinging away and leading Mayura toward the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug and Mayura disappeared into the distance.

Rena Rouge waited another couple minutes before holding her flute to her lips and blowing softly. A ball of orange-white energy appeared on the end, which she pointed at herself. The air around her shimmered for a moment before resolving. Rena Rouge leapt from the roof, somersaulted in midair, and pushed off toward the hotel. On reaching the hotel she pushed herself upward with her legs, caught the next balcony with her flute, and propelled herself floor by floor up to the penthouse.

Landing quietly on the balls of her feet on the penthouse balcony, Rena Rouge slipped through the open door and into Chloe's room. She looked around and saw Chloe sitting on her bed, fully dressed and staring intently out the window.

"Chloe?"

Chloe stood up. "Finally! What took you so long, Ladybug?" She turned back and forth, looking around, and stopped in confusion. "Wait, where are you? I don't see you, Ladybug!"

"It's not Ladybug," Rena Rouge replied. "She's keeping Mayura busy while I fetch you. But come on, we need to leave before Mayura returns."

"Finally! So where's my miraculous already?" Chloe took a step toward the balcony door, closer to Rena Rouge.

Rena Rouge took a hesitant step back. Something felt off. "Hang on. Why were you up waiting for us? How were you expecting us? It's after midnight."

"'How was I expecting you?'" Chloe echoed. She stopped for a moment before smirking and continuing, "Why wouldn't I be waiting for Ladybug to bring me my miraculous? It's been all over the news, of course."

_If Chloe knows what's going on, then how am _I_ still in the dark?_ Rena Rouge thought, moving closer to Chloe, pulling the miraculous box from her pouch, and holding it out. The look of greed in Chloe's face still did not sit right with her. Chloe was always begging to be included in the fight, but not like this. Then she glanced around the room at the disturbed bed. The pile of clothes thrown carelessly in the corner. The fox necklace Chloe wore that she'd never seen before. And the pair of legs sticking out from behind the sofa. "Wait… since when does Chloe Bourgeois watch the news at midnight?" she said, looking back at Chloe suspiciously.

At that moment, Chloe sprang forward, directly toward Rena Rouge, who easily sidestepped her lunge, elbowing her hard in the back as she passed. "Chameleon!" she shouted in sudden realization. "Ladybug was right!"

Chameleon-Chloe stood up and turned to look at Rena Rouge. She raised her fists and sneered. "Hawk Moth figured you would come for your 'Queen Bee' sooner or later! That's you _heroes_' weakness: you care so much about your friends. So he sent me here to pretend to be that dumb blonde airhead. Then when you showed up to give her the miraculous, I could take it, maybe even capture Ladybug and her pathetic group while I'm at it! The bee doesn't suit my tastes as well as the fox does, but I'll take what I can get. Maybe when I'm done, I'll get yours, too!"

"Not gonna happen," Rena Rouge grunted, ducking under Chameleon's wild punch and swinging with her flute. The flute must have extended outside the bubble of her illusion, though, because Chameleon leaned back to avoid the swing. After the flute passed harmlessly over her head, she leaned back in and made a sweeping kick at Rena Rouge's legs. Rena Rouge jumped over Chameleon's legs, landed, and threw herself headfirst at Chameleon. She landed on Chameleon, pushing her off-balance and onto her back as she did so. Chameleon kicked her off with a grunt, sending her flying head over heels. Rena Rouge landed on her feet and caught her balance just as Chameleon came toward her. She gripped her flute with both hands, pulled back, and swung upward with all her might. The flute caught Chameleon under the chin, sending her flying up and backward, away from Rena Rouge. Chameleon's head hit the ceiling with a crack before she landed hard on her back, winded and gasping for breath.

"You have _no_ idea how long I've wanted to do that!" Rena Rouge shouted, pumping her fist. She immediately ran over to the sofa, where she knelt next to the unconscious Chloe. A quick check showed that Chloe was asleep; all of Chameleon's victims the first time through had likewise been put to sleep when she'd kissed them and stolen their appearance. And Rena Rouge had no way to revive Chloe; only Ladybug could do that. _This will complicate things_, she grimaced.

Rena Rouge stooped to pick up the still-unconscious Chloe before rushing out the balcony door, sliding behind cover, and jumping for the next roof. Behind her she heard a shout as Chameleon threw the door open and stormed out. Rena Rouge stayed hidden behind a patch of wall, waiting until the sounds of Chameleon leaping across rooftops died away. Then she adjusted her grip on the still-unconscious Chloe and jumped off her roof in the opposite direction, toward the dojo.

Carrying Chloe and keeping her hidden within the Mirage was a laborious process. The Mirage only extended for a couple feet beyond Rena Rouge's chest in every direction, so she had to be careful to keep Chloe's arms and legs flat against her chest and back. Behind her, she could hear a battle raging near the Eiffel Tower. But she couldn't do anything about it while carrying Chloe; she would have to complete this mission first.

Arriving back at the dojo a few minutes later while still hidden under her Mirage, she opened the front door and slipped through. Inside, she found no one but the old man Marinette had called Master Fu. He looked toward the door with concern in his eyes, raising his hands defensively and fingering a light green bracelet. He also wore a gold circlet in his hair, a ring in his nose, and a black-and-red beaded choker around his throat. Rena Rouge allowed the Mirage to fade. The concern was replaced by relief for a moment.

"Ah, Rena Rouge!" he began, until he caught sight of Chloe draped over her shoulder. "But – what happened to her?"

"Hawk Moth," she replied shortly, dumping Chloe on the floor unceremoniously, rolling her onto her back. She pulled out the miraculous box, opened it, and placed the hair comb in Chloe's hair. "He knew we were coming, so he had friends waiting for us. When I left, Ladybug was still fighting Mayura near the Eiffel Tower." She looked around the room anxiously. "Where are Nino and Adrien? They should have been here by now."

Master Fu looked concerned. "No one has been here since you and Carapace left. I have heard nothing."

Biting back a curse, Rena Rouge retrieved her flute, opened it up, and hit the button to call Ladybug. She answered a minute later, looking winded, flustered, and close to panic. Her expression immediately changed to relief. "Ladybug!" Rena Rouge started, "Nino and Adrien never made it back here. We need to find them! And there's another thing: Chameleon was waiting for me! I've got Chloe – the real Chloe – back at the dojo, but she's still out cold. You'll need to de-Akumatize Lila and use Miraculous Ladybug to wake her up."

"I know," Ladybug retorted, looking away and ducking. "I'm – working on it. Kinda busy right now." The picture shook and spun before Ladybug's face returned. "Get back over here. The others are here already, but I need _you_."

Rena Rouge hung up the phone and looked at Master Fu. "I guess I don't have to hide my identity from you, do I?"

Master Fu smiled and shook his head. "I know everyone Ladybug has given miraculous to."

"Okay. Let's rest." A moment later Trixx flew out of the necklace and landed in Alya's hand. Alya glanced over at Master Fu, who held out a box of cookies. She took the cookies and gave one to Trixx, who bit into it greedily. The rest she stuck in her shirt pocket. "Thanks."

"So when do we do that again?" Trixx asked excitedly after finishing his snack, looking up at Alya expectantly.

"Right now," Alya replied soberly. "My best friends need me. Trixx, let's pounce!"


	9. Chapter 9

_AN: This chapter comes with a warning for "graphic violence and psychological trauma." At this point, this is the only chapter I've written that needs such a warning, but it does get pretty intense around the second half._

_To Rose Tiger: Don't worry; Lila isn't done yet…_

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Ladybug jumped from rooftop to rooftop, making sure to stay close enough for Mayura to follow her. She didn't need to defeat Mayura; it would be enough for her simply to keep Mayura occupied until Rena Rouge and Queen Bee were away from the hotel and back to the safety of the dojo. But to do that, she had to make sure that Mayura actually followed her.

Ladybug reached the last building before the Champ de Mars and jumped off, looping her yo-yo around a streetlamp as she did so. She swung around the pole and released at the top of the swing, allowing her momentum to propel her over the street. Landing on top of a bus stop, she rolled to her feet and crouched, waiting for Mayura to arrive.

Mayura appeared a few minutes later, panting and out of breath. She caught sight of Ladybug on top of the bus stop and ran across the deserted street, spreading her fan and throwing it at Ladybug as she did so.

"Out of shape, are we? Not used to doing your own dirty work, are you?" Ladybug called, leaping off the bus stop into a backward flip as she did so. She landed easily on her feet and spun her yo-yo as a shield. "Of course, if you're going to work for someone like Hawk Moth, you should be used to doing his bidding!"

"I will do anything and everything he asks me to do," Mayura replied calmly. The fan flew back to her and she caught it with one hand. "And that includes calling the exterminator when we have a bug problem!"

"The only bug problem you've got is all those butterflies flapping around your house," she retorted, dodging away from the fan Mayura had thrown at her. "You might want to look into that infestation."

Mayura jumped, caught the fan in midair, twisted around, and kicked out at Ladybug's chest on the way down. Ladybug lifted her hands to block the kick and deflected Mayura's foot away from herself. Mayura used the momentum to kick again with the other foot, pushing Ladybug backward. Ladybug backed away a couple steps and dove to the side. She was on her feet again instantly and turned to parry the punch Mayura threw at her. Instead of parrying, however, she evaded the punch, drawing Mayura off-balance, and spun around to kick her in the side. Mayura fell away with a groan.

Ladybug and Mayura separated by a few steps. Ladybug threw her yo-yo at Mayura's face, but Mayura deflected it with her fan. Mayura lifted her arms in front of her face defensively, spread her fan to cover most of her face except the eyes, and crouched down in a boxer's stance. Ladybug mirrored the motion, spinning her yo-yo in front of herself as a shield as she did so.

"So have you always been evil, or is it just since working for a self-absorbed nutjob like Gabriel Agreste?" Ladybug taunted.

"Gabriel is neither self-absorbed nor crazy," Mayura retorted. "He is a brilliant designer and intensely passionate. He cares so little for his own needs; he does everything for love!"

"A real charmer, I'm sure," Ladybug grunted as she dodged away from Mayura's advance.

"Speaking of charmers, I'm fascinated that my little Adrien actually charmed _you_, child," Mayura observed. She took advantage of Ladybug's momentary distraction to kick her in the gut. "Tell me, girl, was it the looks or the money that won you over?"

"What?" Ladybug was confused for a moment. Suddenly she realized what Mayura meant. "Do you think I care so little for him that I'm only interested in him for those things? None of that matters to me! Adrien is sweet, kind, caring… so different from you _or_ his father!"

Mayura laughed derisively. "Why, I think you actually believe you're in love with him! Please! This young love can't last. I give it another week before he gets bored with you and moves on to someone else. And anyways, aren't _you_ the reason Adrien nearly died tonight?"

Ladybug's mouth fell open. She hesitated for a fraction of a second, and that was all Mayura needed to catch her in the stomach with a kick. Ladybug fell onto her back. The wind was knocked out of her. She couldn't catch a breath. Mentally she kicked herself. She knew Mayura was just baiting her, distracting her, throwing her off-balance. And she had let her. How could she have allowed herself to be distracted by just the _mention_ of Adrien?

Ladybug kicked Mayura away and sprang to her feet. She had to keep Mayura here as long as she could. Mayura saw her looking around and grinned. She waited a moment before attacking. Mayura did the same. Suddenly Ladybug's eyes widened in realization: Mayura wasn't pressing the advantage. She wasn't trying to win this fight, either. She wasn't interested in taking the miraculous herself right now; she was stalling, keeping Ladybug occupied. But did that mean that Rena Rouge was in trouble? Ladybug hesitated. But she couldn't abandon the plan now; she had to trust her friends. Alya would not fail her.

At that moment, Ladybug heard a mass of trampling feet coming their way from the waterfront. At a loss for who or what it could be, she looked away from Mayura momentarily. It was a small army of people who appeared to be made of clay. Under the glow of a nearby streetlight, they appeared grayish, about a head shorter than a normal human, though built proportionately. And the strange clay army was being herded by Cat Noir and Carapace.

"I always wanted to try cat-tle rustling!" Cat Noir shouted, prodding one of them with his staff.

"Easy there, dude," Carapace retorted. He used his shield to shove one of the creatures back into the herd. "Any idea what to do with them now?"

"I have an idea," Cat Noir answered, prodding the leader of the herd toward the pool. "They seem to be made of clay, so let's see how they mix with water."

The clays raced into the pool, chased onward by Cat Noir and Carapace. The moment the first one's feet touched the water, it stumbled a bit, fell off balance as its feet started to dissolve, and fell over. The water bubbled as the body disappeared beneath the surface of the water. As the rest of the clays followed the first one into the pool, they all began to melt and dissolve. Carapace and Cat Noir high-fived.

On seeing this, Mayura snapped her fingers and the remains of the army disappeared, to be replaced by a 16-foot-tall image of Hawk Moth. Even across the park, Ladybug could see the shock on Cat Noir's face at seeing his father, larger-than-life, standing in front of him. The massive Hawk Moth slammed his cane to the ground, causing a ripple that threw both Cat Noir and Carapace from their feet. Then Hawk Moth lifted an enormous foot to stomp Cat Noir into the ground. Cat Noir was frozen in place, lying flat on his back.

Carapace recovered first. He lifted his shield above his head and jumped in front of Cat Noir. As Hawk Moth's foot landed on the shield, Carapace angled it away from them, pulling Hawk Moth off balance as his legs overextended.

"I got your back, dude!" Carapace said, pulling Cat Noir to his feet. "But what happened there?"

"It's… complicated," Cat Noir responded, wincing.

By this time Hawk Moth had gotten back up and was coming toward them again. Cat Noir nodded to Carapace, who stood his ground and braced behind his shield. Meanwhile, Cat Noir dove to the side and came up behind the giant Hawk Moth. Hawk Moth stooped low as he brought his cane down. It clanged on Carapace's shield like a gong, reverberating through the deserted park. As Hawk Moth stooped, Cat Noir leapt onto his back, looping his staff around Hawk Moth's neck and pulling backward. The fake Hawk Moth bellowed as he was pulled upright, bringing his hands up to his throat in a vain attempt to dislodge Cat Noir as he did so. Cat Noir adjusted his grip, moving about on Hawk Moth's back to avoid the clutching hands while using his weight to direct Hawk Moth toward the low wall surrounding the pool.

Ladybug couldn't watch their fight forever, though; Mayura lunged at her, pressing her backward. Ladybug avoided a kick, followed up by a set of punches. She flipped away, throwing her yo-yo at Mayura as she did so. Mayura blocked the yo-yo with her fan, deflecting it away from herself into the ground. As Ladybug drew the yo-yo back to herself, Mayura drew her fan back and flung it at Ladybug's face. Ladybug twisted her neck to avoid the fan, but still received a cut to her cheek. Landing, she caught the yo-yo and immediately threw it behind herself, spinning it into a shield. The fan clattered as it hit the yo-yo on its return to Mayura and deflected to the side, toward the Tower.

Mayura ran toward the fan, stooping to pick it up as she did so, and continued toward the tower. Ladybug drew her yo-yo back and charged after Mayura. If she could keep Mayura occupied, then she would have to snap away the sentimonster of Hawk Moth and create a new sentimonster to protect herself, allowing Carapace and Cat Noir to help her. _But why bring the two of them here?_ she wondered.

Mayura leapt into the structure of the Tower, leaning against a support to catch her breath. Ladybug threw her yo-yo, which looped around a nearby bar, and pulled herself into the air. On seeing this, Mayura drew back and threw her fan at Ladybug. Without any other options, Ladybug gauged the distance and spin velocity, reached out with her free hand, and caught the fan in midair. Mayura's expression froze. Still in mid-jump, Ladybug wound up and threw the fan back at Mayura's face. Mayura ducked to avoid the fan, allowing it to sail past her. As Mayura turned her head to follow where the fan went, Ladybug pulled her feet together, aimed them straight in front of herself, and bent her knees slightly, just before impact. Mayura cried out in surprise as Ladybug kicked her in the back, sending her flying across the open space, into the opposite support leg. She caught herself there, grabbed hold of a beam, and turned to glare at Ladybug.

Mayura leapt from her perch higher into the structure, angling for a point near the lower landing area. Following her path with her eyes, Ladybug could see the fan wedged into a space in the latticework there. She swung her yo-yo, wrapped it around a bar, and pulled herself upward, releasing that bar as she passed and catching a higher bar with the yo-yo to continue her ascent. Mayura was closer; she got to the fan moments before Ladybug did. As Mayura's fingers closed around the handle, Ladybug landed next to her, transferring all her momentum into a kick straight to Mayura's gut. Mayura pulled the fan free even as she flew backward, away from Ladybug. She reached out with her free hand and caught hold of a support as she sailed past, swinging herself around and catching hold of the structure with both hands and pulling herself higher up into the tower.

Ladybug pursued, shouting, "What? Running away? Afraid to face me on your own? It took three of you to fight Cat Noir, and he _still_ escaped you! Maybe you're not a pea_cock_; maybe you're a pea_chicken_!"

"And yet you never go anywhere without at least one of your friends with you," Mayura retorted, landing on the very top of the Tower. "If your _cat_ hadn't shown up tonight, what were you going to do? Beg for your mommy? You're awfully tough out here; where was all this bravado earlier?"

"At least I fight my own battles," Ladybug replied, landing on top of the Tower next to Mayura. "I don't hide behind patsies, forcing helpless people to do my dirty work. Unlike you and your precious _boss_."

"Hmm. We'll see just how that turns out for you, child," Mayura said, nodding toward the main road. "Aren't those your friends down there?"

Ladybug turned to follow Mayura's gaze. She could just make out two figures running in their direction. The second one was unmistakable in orange and white: Rena Rouge. And the girl she was chasing, only identifiable at this distance by the blond ponytail that caught the light from the streetlamps she was passing, must have been Chloe.

_But why are they coming here?_ Ladybug wondered. _I told Alya to get back to the dojo, not find me and join the fight. Ugh, it's just like Chloe to beg to be in the thick of the action, even when it's not the smart move_. Then Ladybug realized that Chloe was still in her civilian form; she could just make out her hair comb at this distance, but it wasn't activated. Something felt wrong.

"I guess you're outnumbered, Mayura," Ladybug taunted, turning back to her. "There are five of us now, and only one of you!" Mayura gave her an enigmatic smile and leapt backward off the Tower. Ladybug ran over to see where she had gone and saw her holding onto a support a third of the way down. She let go and dropped another third of the distance before dropping to the ground. Ladybug looped her yo-yo around the tip of the Tower, jumped off, and swung around the Tower, lengthening the yo-yo string as she did so. A moment later, she was standing on the ground, on the opposite side of the Tower from Mayura, closest to Chloe and Rena Rouge.

Chloe was only 50 yards away by this point, and still had not transformed. Ladybug turned back toward her just as she shouted, "Buzz on," glowed yellow for a moment, and emerged as Queen Bee. Ladybug lifted her hand to wave, just in time to feel a sudden breeze against her arm.

Mayura's fan flew past her, having narrowly missed taking her arm off at the elbow.

And then the fan snapped shut and struck Queen Bee right in the stomach. Queen Bee's mouth fell open in shock, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. Ladybug gasped as Queen Bee fell over backward, the fan still sticking out of her abdomen. Ladybug screamed and ran over to her. She fell to her knees next to Queen Bee's head and tried to pull her up into a sitting position. Queen Bee looked up into her eyes and opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Blood trickled out of the corner of her mouth. Then her head fell back and she looked away, eyes glazed.

Ladybug looked up at Rena Rouge, who had just stopped next to her. Rena Rouge was panting for breath, a look of horror in her eyes. She was staring down at Queen Bee in shock.

"What happened?" Ladybug demanded. "Why did you come here?"

"I—" Rena Rouge stopped as the night was ripped apart by a sonic crack. Rena Rouge's head blew apart as the bullet tore through it, and Ladybug felt wet spray pepper her face. Rena Rouge fell backward to the ground, half her head missing.

"Rena!?" Ladybug screamed. She felt her world torn apart. Not her best friend! She was the one who chose Alya, who gave her the miraculous. And now Alya was dead! She never imagined that it would end like this! She felt the color draining from her face as she watched the blood spilling from Alya's ruined head. She was dizzy. Nausea bubbled up, threatening to pour out. She couldn't think, couldn't move. She was dimly aware of something solid lying across her lap, but couldn't bring herself to look away from Alya.

Ladybug felt a hand against her cheek and looked down. Queen Bee was reaching up toward her ear, reaching for the miraculous! Ladybug pushed her away and stood up. What was happening? Wasn't Queen Bee dead? What was she doing? She looked back at where Rena Rouge had fallen, only to see her vanish in a wisp of smoke, leaving no trace behind. Reaching up to feel her face, she felt no trace of the blood that had spattered her moments before. Cat Noir ran up to her at that moment.

"Milady, are you okay?" he wheezed, bent almost double with his hands on his thighs.

"I-I don't know." Ladybug looked around wildly, confused. Everything looked different than it had a moment earlier. Queen Bee's body was nowhere to be seen. What was going on?

"Let's get out of here," Cat Noir said at last, taking her hand. "Where should we go?"

"I-I'm not sure," Ladybug answered. Alarm bells were going off in her head.

Cat Noir cupped her face with his hands. "Everything's going to be okay, Milady," he said.

Ladybug looked up into his eyes, covered his hands with hers. Then she heard someone shouting her name, as if from a long distance away. She felt the backing on one of her earrings loosen. Then Cat Noir's face swam into view to the side, shadowed and hazy, a terrified expression on his face. Looking back at the Cat Noir standing in front of her, she blinked and drew back when she saw the angry, greedy look that twisted his features.

Ladybug pushed him away, cupping a hand over the loosened earring and pushing it tight. "What's my name?" she shouted at the Cat Noir standing in front of her. "_What's my name?_"

Cat Noir sneered. "'Gullible,'" he answered, but it wasn't Cat Noir's voice that she heard – and yet it still sounded ominously familiar. And then Cat Noir shimmered in front of her face and transformed into the faces of all her friends, swirling around her. And then the faces stopping moving and resolved down into a single figure, wearing an orange-and-white suit.

"Volpina."

"Took you long enough." Volpina smirked and vanished in a puff of smoke.

Ladybug raised her fists defensively as the scene around her spun and swirled. She could see Volpina's laughing face. She could see images of Lila kissing Adrien. She could see Adrien falling to his death from the Eiffel Tower. She could see Rena Rouge and Queen Bee, lying still and unmoving at her feet. More and more images flooded past her. Which were real and which were creations? Ladybug fell to the ground, curling up on herself, shutting her eyes, and covering her ears with her hands.

She almost didn't hear her yo-yo when it started to ring.


	10. Chapter 10

_To PPKLS: Thanks for all your feedback. Adrien's dyed hair does carry through into his transformation, but I forgot to note that anywhere._

* * *

Whatever was happening at the Eiffel Tower, Ladybug had seemed almost beside herself. She had been close to losing control when Rena Rouge had called. The fact that Adrien and Nino never made it to the dojo hadn't surprised her, either. That probably meant they were at the Eiffel Tower, also. But Adrien wasn't in good shape for some reason. And what had happened during Ladybug's fight with Mayura, and how did it explain the edge of panic in Ladybug's voice at the beginning of the call? Her stomach clenched in anxiety.

All Rena Rouge knew for certain was that her best friend needed her. Now. There was nothing for it but to race across town as fast as she possibly could, and hope that she wouldn't arrive too late. She sped up, racing across rooftops faster than she had ever run before, faster than she had thought was possible, even with the enhanced speed and agility afforded by her miraculous.

The Eiffel Tower grew steadily larger in the distance. Finally, Rena Rouge reached the end of the line of buildings whose roofs she had been running across. Without slowing down, she leapt from the last roof, aiming for a billboard 20 feet away and 15 feet below her. She landed catlike on the balls of her feet on the top edge of the billboard and ran down the length of it, springing off the far edge toward a streetlamp below. She reached out with both hands, caught the crossbar, and swung around it. As she reached the top of her swing, she released her grip and sailed through the air to the next streetlamp. She continued in this way until she reached the cross street, jumping across it and landing atop the bus stop. Without slowing down she dropped off the bus stop, rolled as she hit the ground, sprang to her feet, and sprinted toward the Eiffel Tower.

In the distance, under the light of the lamps surrounding the base of the Tower, she could see Ladybug fighting against Mayura directly beneath the Tower. Carapace fought a gigantic fox; he had shoved his shield into the fox's mouth and was pushing the fox back, away from the Tower, sidestepping to evade its scrabbling front paws. Cat Noir was on the far side of the Tower from her, engaged in a ferocious duel with Hawk Moth himself.

As Rena Rouge neared the fighting, the fox fighting Carapace morphed into a heron and lifted him from the ground. Carapace lost his grip on the shield and fell, flat on his back, landing hard on his shell. The shield flew out of the heron's beak towards Rena Rouge, who stooped to pick it up without slowing down. Carapace staggered to his feet and backed up toward the Tower, where Mayura had pressed Ladybug back up against one of the Tower's legs. Leaving Cat Noir alone for the moment, Rena Rouge raced to where Mayura and the heron had trapped Ladybug and Carapace.

Rena Rouge caught Carapace's eye and nodded, right before she threw the shield toward him like a discus. He caught the shield with one hand and held it in front of himself, stepping in front of Ladybug and crouching down as he did so. Then Rena Rouge brought her flute up to her lips and blew. A ball of white light appeared at the tip of the flute, which she swung towards her friends, releasing the light to sail toward them. It landed halfway between her and the others, where it transformed into an image of a pack of snarling dogs that growled and charged at Mayura and the heron. Mayura dove to the side, away from the dogs, and swung herself up into the structure of the Tower. The heron vanished in a wisp of smoke.

Rena Rouge ran over to Ladybug and Carapace, squeezing Carapace's shoulder as she reached him. Ladybug reached out a hand and put it on Rena Rouge's shoulder, gripping it tightly.

"You are the real Rena Rouge, right?" Ladybug demanded, looking so hard into her eyes that she flinched.

"Um, why wouldn't I be?" she asked in confusion.

"This has been a weird night and a weirder fight," Ladybug retorted.

"Tell me about it," Carapace groaned. "They are really pulling out all the stops tonight."

"Yeah, what was with that heron?" Rena Rouge asked him.

"Mayura," he said simply. "She's been cycling through sentimonsters all night."

"Mayura must have Amokized herself somehow," Ladybug said. "That's the only explanation for the level of control she's got over the sentimonsters."

"Yeah, it's been kind of hard to figure out what's what all night – ever since that phone call you got, in fact!"

"Speaking of, why are you here? Weren't you supposed to return straight to the dojo? And where's—" She stopped and glanced over at Cat Noir. She had a pretty good guess where Adrien was.

"We were on our way to the dojo when a herd of putties started pouring through the streets." To Rena Rouge's confused look, he explained, "I guess someone liked those old _Power Rangers_ shows. We couldn't let the putties run around wreaking havoc, especially so close to the dojo, so we transformed and chased them away. They led us here, and that's where we found Ladybug and Mayura."

"And Hawk Moth?" Rena Rouge asked.

"That's not Hawk Moth," Ladybug said, gesturing towards Cat Noir, who was now fighting a figure which she recognized as Oni-Chan. Oni-Chan lunged at Cat Noir, who deflected the sword and dove aside. Then Oni-Chan saw Rena Rouge, and the whole world went black around them.

Everyone else had vanished. Oni-Chan herself vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by Volpina.

"You again!" Rena Rouge said in surprise.

"Me," Volpina replied, smirking. "I didn't get your miraculous last time; perhaps this time I'll get it!" And then Volpina multiplied into a dozen copies of herself, all of whom charged at Rena Rouge.

Rena Rouge calmly walked forward, through the crowd of Volpinas. Knowing Lila, none of them would be the real one. _No, Lila prefers to lurk in the shadows, to let her lies turn us against each other. She'd rather watch us waste our energy on the falsehood, and then take advantage of our distraction._

As the last of the fake Volpinas passed her and vanished in a puff of smoke, another Volpina appeared to her side, kicking out at Rena Rouge's exposed ribs. Rena Rouge sidestepped, turning as she did so and bringing her arm down to pin the leg against her side. Volpina's eyes widened in surprise as Rena Rouge reached over, grabbed the leg in both hands, swung her around her waist to gain momentum, and threw her. Volpina landed on her back, bounced once, threw her legs over her head, landed on her hands and feet, and hopped backwards to land upright on her feet. She brought her flute to her lips and blew, and wispy images began pouring out of the flute, all floating towards Rena Rouge. She could see images of Ladybug in trouble. Images of Paris on fire. Images of herself being Akumatized on Heroes' Day and fighting against Ladybug. She knew none of these images were real, but they stirred up unpleasant memories. Without meaning to, she hesitated.

Rena Rouge heard a shout in the distance and looked to see Ladybug fighting against Mayura with her back up against a wall. She was bleeding from a gash in her arm. The string of her yo-yo was still wrapped around her finger, but the yo-yo itself was nowhere to be seen; the string had been cut. That arm hung limply at Ladybug's side. Ladybug raised her other arm to defend herself, but Mayura sidestepped and kicked her in the gut on her weak side. Ladybug grunted and cradled her stomach with the injured arm, bent over double.

At that moment Ladybug looked up and saw Rena Rouge, standing there and watching her. "Rena Rouge! Help me!" she shouted, eyes wide in fear. Mayura lifted her fist above Ladybug and brought it down hard on her back. Ladybug fell to the ground, one arm reaching out to Rena Rouge.

"I'm coming, Ladybug!" Rena Rouge shouted, racing toward her as fast as she possibly could. However, she could never close the distance between them; Ladybug was always just as far away. Without looking where she was going, Rena Rouge ran straight off a cliff. She screamed and held her arms out in front of herself, trying to cushion against the impact.

What seemed like an eternity later, she landed on her chest on the hard ground. She pushed herself into a sitting position, groaned, and looked around. Right next to her, she saw Ladybug, lying there, neck bent at an unnatural angle, staring sightlessly into Rena Rouge's own eyes.

Rena Rouge's mouth fell open in shock. She couldn't comprehend what had happened. One minute Ladybug was fighting Mayura; the next, they had both fallen off a cliff! She leaned forward to kneel over Ladybug's immobile body, put her hand on her friend's chest. _Where did that cliff come from? In Paris? Near the _Eiffel Tower_!_ Her eyes went wide in realization.

Rena Rouge closed her eyes, drew in a breath, and let it out. _This is an illusion. Marinette is fine. Lila is just trying to trick me._ She opened her eyes again. She was still kneeling, but at the base of the Eiffel Tower. Ladybug was nowhere to be seen, but Volpina was standing a couple feet away from her, leering down at her, a look of triumph on her face.

"Cute trick," Rena Rouge grunted, pushing herself to her feet. "I'm sure they love you at birthday parties."

"You're pathetic!" Volpina gloated. "You have the Miraculous of Illusion, but you're just as vulnerable to my illusions as the others! You should have seen _Ladybug_ after I let her see you and Queen Bee murdered in front of her! '_Oh, no, no! Not my friends!_' Pathetic! You don't deserve the miraculous! Hawk Moth has shown me what the fox miraculous is truly capable of! When I have it, I'll put it to such better use than you ever have."

"I'm so happy for you," Rena Rouge retorted raising her fists and gripping her flute tightly. "But you're never going to get it!"

Volpina snarled and charged. Rena Rouge stepped to one side, ducking to avoid the punch she'd thrown at her. She jabbed with her flute as Volpina passed, catching her in the gut and pushing the flute up under her ribcage. Volpina gasped and staggered away from her. Then she turned to face her, raised both fists, and lunged, punching repeatedly. Rena Rouge held her arms up on either side of her face, catching the punches and deflecting them away from her head. She ducked beneath a punch and dove forward, into Volpina's chest, knocking her back off her feet. Rena Rouge landed on top of her with a triumphant shout. She brought down her flute on Volpina's throat, pinning her to the ground. She grabbed Volpina's necklace to rip it away from her.

"You may have stopped me, but who's going to stop them?" Volpina gasped, nodding toward the Eiffel Tower behind them as she did so.

"You're not fooling me again," Rena Rouge growled. She tugged on the necklace.

Volpina snorted. "We'll see about that." And then she vanished in a puff of orange smoke.

Rena Rouge jumped up, looking around herself wildly. Another illusion? Had this whole _fight_ been an illusion? But it had all felt so real; it couldn't all have been an illusion, could it? It even threw punches that really hurt! Had anything been real since her fight with Volpina had first started? But if the illusion had ended, then where was Volpina… She looked up at the Tower, and her heart stopped.

There, at the very top of the Tower, were Ladybug, Cat Noir, and Carapace. Ladybug and Cat Noir had both lost their weapons in the fighting. Mayura and Volpina had them backed up against the railing. Carapace, standing in front of the other two, had used Shell-ter to surround the three of them with a force field, but the force field was weakening under repeated blows from a pair of medieval knights holding a battering ram. Then the force field broke. With a triumphant shout, Mayura kicked Carapace hard in the shield which he was still holding protectively in front of himself. Carapace stumbled backward, into Ladybug and Cat Noir, and all three of them went over the railing and fell, pushed out and away from the Tower.

Rena Rouge could hear her friends screaming as they fell. And then the screaming was much closer. She was the one screaming! Her friends – Nino! Marinette! Adrien? – were falling – dying! And there was nothing she could do to save them. She'd taken Volpina's bait, and they were going to pay the price!

Rena Rouge felt her world crashing down around her. She fell to her knees, buried her face in her hands, closed her tear-filled eyes, and wailed. But then her eyes felt like they were on fire. At first she thought they were just red and dry from weeping. But the sensation was different. Her eyes felt like they were _actually burning_! She couldn't keep them closed any longer against the pain. Finally she opened them.

The world burned bright orange around her. Flames licked at the center of her vision, working their way outward. The Eiffel Tower in front of her turned to ash and floated away. Her friends, falling to their death, caught fire and vanished in a cloud of smoke. Her sight was tinged with orange. But suddenly she could see _everything_ clearly!

She was 50 feet from the Tower, facing away from it. Somehow she was back on her feet. Her friends were fighting against Mayura and a gigantic snowman to her right. And behind her, she felt Volpina's hands closing around her miraculous. Rena Rouge made a fist with her right hand, enclosed it in her left, and slammed her elbow back as hard and fast as she possibly could. From the sickening thud, and the pained grunt that followed, she knew she had caught Volpina in the stomach. She half turned and stomped back with her foot, straight into Volpina's instep, rolling Volpina's ankle. Volpina staggered back a step, and Rena Rouge turned entirely around and kicked her in the knee. The knee popped as it was forced out of joint, and Volpina screamed.

Rena Rouge advanced on her, holding her flute in front of herself. Her face flushed with rage. Volpina tried to limp backward away from her, but fell over when her wrecked knee failed to support her weight. She continued to scramble backward using her hands and feet. Terror and pain were mixed in her eyes, but quickly gave way to sheer panic. She lifted the flute to her lips and blew.

Rena Rouge braced for the illusion, but nothing happened. The world around her was bathed in orange flames.

Volpina looked at her in confusion and blew the flute again. A black shadow started to emerge from the flute but caught fire as it appeared. Rena Rouge kept her eyes focused straight on the cowering Volpina.

"What?" Volpina looked around herself in fear. "I don't…"

"Your illusions won't work on me anymore," Rena Rouge declared triumphantly. "I see through them, and I see through _you_. And _you_ are finished."

Rena Rouge reached down, held her flute to Volpina's neck, grabbed the necklace she was wearing, and yanked it off of her, breaking the clasp as she did so. She grabbed the fox pendant in both hands and snapped it in half. A purple-tinged butterfly fluttered out of it. The flames in her eyes abated.

"Ladybug!" she shouted, turning to where the others were still fighting Mayura and the snowman.

Ladybug ran over, opening her yo-yo and swinging it around herself as she did so. She caught the butterfly in her yo-yo and purified it. "How did you do it?" she asked, looking at Rena Rouge in amazement.

"I-I don't know." Rena Rouge shrugged. _How _did_ I do it?_ "One minute I was trapped in illusion after illusion; the next, it's like the illusions all burned away."

"I can't believe it." Ladybug shook her head. "But as for you," she said, looking down at the newly-deakumatized Lila, lying on the ground, cradling her knee in both hands, and sobbing in pain. "I'm sorry Hawk Moth used you again. I hope that Miraculous Ladybug will fix your knee."

"Don't rub it in," Lila retorted through gritted teeth. "You won tonight. But you and your friends _are_ going down, and I'm going to be there to make it happen."

"Well, I guess we _won't_ ever be friends," Ladybug muttered, turning away from her.

At that moment, behind them Rena Rouge heard Cat Noir shout "Cataclysm!" She turned to look just as Cat Noir grabbed Mayura's fan out of midair. The fan crumbled to dust, as did the sentimonster snowman.

"No!" Mayura shouted, turning to flee out of the park, away from the lights, and down a dark alley.

"Looks like Hawk Moth and Mayura are done with you, Lila," Rena Rouge observed as she and Ladybug walked away.

Carapace and Cat Noir ran over to where Ladybug and Rena Rouge were waiting. Rena Rouge gave a half-smile as Carapace stopped next to her and held out his arms. She collapsed into his arms and hugged him tightly, closing her eyes and burying her face in his shoulder. She felt him close his arms around her, and sighed in relief.

"You had me worried when you weren't at the dojo," Rena Rouge said, pulling back to see his face.

"Yeah, things happened on the way," Cat Noir commented. Rena Rouge glanced over to see him with his arm around Ladybug, who was holding him tightly with both arms wrapped around his chest.

"Yeah," Carapace said. "It's been a _crazy_ night."

"Not over yet, guys," Ladybug said. She threw a red polka-dotted triangular shield into the air and shouted "Miraculous Ladybug!" Then she looked at the others and said, "Let's get out of here."


	11. Chapter 11

_To Rose Tiger: Don't worry; Lila's not quite done yet. She makes a reappearance in the sequel, though it's a minor role._

* * *

Chloe woke up with a splitting headache. The first thing she noticed was that she was lying on a hard wooden floor. The second thing was that the ceiling she was staring at above her was not that of her penthouse, or anywhere else in her father's hotel, for that matter – there couldn't be that kind of plain wood _anywhere_ in the hotel! So where could she be?

She next became aware of a tiny yellow face inches from her own, peering into her eyes anxiously. It was a face she had only seen a handful of times before, but it was a most comforting sight, especially in such unfamiliar surroundings. Reaching up a hand to brush back her hair, she felt the familiar shape of her miraculous.

Suddenly Chloe was confused. The miraculous had definitely not been there when she passed out; nor had Pollen, now that she thought about it. Pollen only appeared when the miraculous was activated, and it had been weeks since Ladybug last lent her the miraculous. Her last conscious memory was of getting ready for sleep in her penthouse when Sabrina stopped in unexpectedly. Why wasn't she at the hotel anymore? How had she gotten here? Where even _was_ here? She sat up sharply – Pollen jumped and began flying circles around her head at that – looking around in every direction at once. The room was sparsely furnished, with only a single rug covering the hardwood floor. The only furniture in the room was a single small table with an ornate phonograph sitting on top. But she quickly lost interest in the room; far more interesting (and concerning) was the short old Chinese man kneeling on the floor a couple feet away, staring at her intently.

Chloe pulled her knees to her chest protectively and forced the fear from her face, replacing it with cold superiority, her accustomed defense. Clearly this man wasn't dangerous, whoever he was. She was still uninjured, free, and in one piece, as far as she could tell. So he hadn't hurt her yet. And if he tried, well, 2 words and Pollen would transform her into Queen Bee; a third word and she could Venom him and flee. A look into his face showed her that he knew what she was thinking and found it more amusing than anything else.

"Who are you?" she finally asked, her arrogant façade cracking slightly. "What's going on? Why am I here? And shouldn't Pollen be hiding from you? And not even here? How did I get my miraculous? And why does no one tell me anything?"

The stranger smiled at her calmly. "I'm afraid I cannot answer all your questions because I do not know the answers myself," he replied. "I am Master Fu, and you are in my dojo. I am the Guardian of the Miraculous, and thus known to all the Kwamis. That is how you come to have your miraculous and why Pollen will not hide from me. Rena Rouge brought you here some time ago, but you were unconscious. Since you are awake, doubtless that means that Ladybug's mission succeeded and the others are on their way back here now. I hope we will both get the answers we are looking for when they arrive."

Chloe slammed her fist on the floor angrily. "'The others.' You mean Ladybug called in everyone, and I was sitting at home, clueless? I could have helped her! I _should_ have been there helping her. They—" she stopped, mouth hanging open. She had meant to say, "They need me," but that wasn't really true, was it? Most of the time, Ladybug and Cat Noir were perfectly fine on their own. And even Rena Rouge and Carapace had proven they were capable – in some ways more capable than she was. They solved whatever was going on tonight without her, after all. So no, they didn't really need her – not in the way that she needed this, needed them. Chloe was used to being adored, being the center of attention. She was used to the power and prestige that came from being the daughter of the Mayor of Paris. She was used to having people like Sabrina and Jean to boss around, people who would do anything she told them to do. She was used to her classmates jumping when she spoke, falling over each other to impress her. But suddenly that wasn't enough. Suddenly she had the miraculous, and Pollen transformed her into the best version of herself: helpful, noble, caring, brave. Someone that people actually admired. She had people – friends, even – who liked her as a person, not just as the Mayor's daughter. "They are my friends," she finally said, looking down at her knees.

"I am relieved to hear you say that," Master Fu observed, smiling. She looked up at him in surprise. "I must admit, I questioned Ladybug's wisdom in continuing to grant you the power of the bee miraculous. I had observed you to be selfish and arrogant." He gave her a look and chuckled gently. "That you became Akumatized and attempted to kill Ladybug and Cat Noir the first time you used the miraculous did not instill confidence in me!"

Chloe felt her face burn with shame. She knew the accusation was true; she _had_ used the miraculous selfishly when she first found it. If Miraculous Ladybug hadn't repaired the comb…

Seeing her face, Master Fu quickly added, "I suppose that shows the foolishness of age. I saw you at 13 and assumed I had you pegged. I suppose even a 188-year-old can still learn something from youth. Ladybug convinced me to give you another chance, that the miraculous could bring out the best in you. I don't think any of us have had cause to regret it since."

"I know _I_ haven't. Having Ladybug's confidence and trust, having Pollen's encouragement, makes me want to be a better person."

"I believe you, Chloe Bourgeois," Master Fu observed. "And I suspect that your friends do, as well. If I'm not mistaken, they have just arrived."

Chloe looked around wildly, but the room was still empty. Only for a moment, however; the next moment the air began to shimmer and melt, revealing Ladybug, Cat Noir, Rena Rouge, and Carapace, all staring at her in surprise.

"Chloe," Cat Noir observed with a grin. "I always knew you had it in you!"

Biting back a retort, Chloe's eyes grew wide in concern. Something must have been wrong. Despite his bravado, Cat Noir looked pale and haggard, his hair buzzed short and dyed an unflattering black; he was leaning heavily on Ladybug's shoulder. Ladybug herself clung to Cat Noir like she feared he would disappear, a haunted look in her eyes. Rena Rouge's eyes held a similar look; the look she gave to Carapace, the protective way he held her, suggested some unfathomable horror. Only Carapace seemed not to have been affected by the night's events. He grinned and shook his head at her.

"Ladybug!" she cried, springing to her feet and running over to them. "What's happened? What's going on? What's wrong? I-I'm sorry, I didn't know."

Ladybug put her hand on Chloe's shoulder. "It's not your fault," she said with a sad smile. "I should be apologizing to you because I didn't warn you sooner. I was afraid to contact you, since Hawk Moth knows who you are. But how are you?"

Chloe laughed mirthlessly. "I was knocked unconscious when my best friend kissed me on the cheek. I woke up in a strange room with a strange old man staring at me. You all look like you've been through a meat grinder. And I've been completely left out and have no idea what's going on. How do you _think_ I feel?"

Carapace finally exploded at that, causing Chloe to jump. "How _you_ feel? At least you've had an excuse for being in the dark! The last time I actually knew what was happening, I was at my girlfriend's house, watching a movie to celebrate the end of the school year! Since then I've done everything I've been asked, not questioned any of the weird things that happened. But now I want to know what's going on!"

"You have a girlfriend?" Chloe asked, trying to reclaim some of her customary arrogance and giving Rena Rouge a scornful glance.

Ladybug sighed. "I know it's been hard on the three of you, being in the dark tonight," she said. She squeezed Cat Noir around the waist, and he gave her an encouraging smile. "Something happened a few hours ago that changed everything. There's good news and bad news. But first, the time for secrecy is over; it actually ended a few hours ago. Before the secrets protected us; now they can only endanger us."

Ladybug nodded to Rena Rouge and Carapace. Without hesitating, Rena Rouge said, "Let's rest," and de-transformed. Carapace looked confused a moment, but shrugged and said, "Shell off," and followed suit.

It took a moment for Chloe's brain to catch up with what her eyes were seeing. She didn't know whom she expected Rena Rouge and Carapace to be, but it really wasn't them. She knew she must look horrendous with her mouth hanging open, but she could not reconcile the facts. Finally she managed to choke out, "Nino? Alya?"

Ladybug smirked as she answered her, "Yes, and that's just the start. Spots off."

Chloe's jaw dropped. "Dupain-Chang? Marinette? All this time I've been idolizing and mocking my hero in the same breath!? I can't believe it!"

"Believe it," Marinette said, a serious look in her eyes. "But this is a day for shocks." She laughed. "You can apologize later for the last few years. The good news is that we now know who Hawk Moth and Mayura are."

Cat Noir stepped forward. "The bad news," he said, beginning to glow black around his waist as he did so, "is that Hawk Moth is my father. And" – the de-transformation ended – "he knows who I am."

"_Adrien?_"


	12. Chapter 12

_AN: There is one chapter left in "Milady" after this one. The sequel is already written (I finally picked a title a couple days ago: "Mind Games"), and it will start being published on Sunday. The third story in the series is planned out, but a little more standalone, so I won't publish it right away unless I get it completely written in the next 2 weeks (which is unlikely). It will probably be ready by January._

* * *

Marinette looked around the room, into the faces of her friends, gauging their reactions to Adrien's announcement. Chloe looked about to faint from shock; Marinette felt a twinge of guilt for having thrown so many shocks at her after the excitement of the night, especially after Chloe had actually called them her "friends." Alya's face combined recognition and surprise, as did Nino's. Marinette supposed that after the events of that night both of them must have at least suspected that she and Adrien were Ladybug and Cat Noir. She could tell by the troubled look in Nino's eyes, however, that he was disturbed by the realization that his best friend's father was actually Hawk Moth – as much as they all disliked how domineering and controlling Adrien's father was, none of them wanted to imagine such evil of him. Master Fu, however, looked horrified by this entire turn of events.

"Your father, Adrien?" he asked, eyes wide. "And he knows who you are? But this is terrible!"

"Believe me," Adrien retorted, "I know." He lifted his shirt to reveal angry yellow bruising along the bottom of his ribcage. "I had the cracked ribs to prove it! He kicked me right where I broke those ribs on a photo shoot a couple years ago." His gaze turned dark. "He knew exactly who I was and how that kick was going to hurt me."

"But, Adrien," Master Fu began gently, "if that is the case, then there is no way for you to keep your miraculous and return home. It is not even a _risk_ of danger; the moment he sees you, he _will_ take your miraculous away!"

"He can try," Adrien grinned, though the grin stopped at his mouth and didn't touch his still-dark eyes. "But after tonight I don't think he'll be too keen on trying that again. Maybe next time I'll _actually_ Cataclysm the house apart… But no, I know. I knew my time as Cat Noir was over the moment I transformed, maybe even the moment my _father_ transformed. But I don't regret it. That's the least I would do to save my Ladybug."

In that moment, when Adrien smiled at her, Marinette felt her heart flutter. Then the import of what he had said hit home. She was going to lose her Cat Noir? After really finding him, finding out who he was? After everything he'd done for her – and not just tonight? After everything _she_'d done to keep him safe since they fled his father's mansion? Seeing Adrien reaching to take off his ring propelled her forward. Marinette stepped up to stand next to Adrien and took his hand away from the ring, interlacing her fingers with his as she did so.

"No," she said firmly, ignoring the surprise in Adrien's face and staring straight at Master Fu fiercely. Master Fu looked at her in concern, then gave her a patronizing smile. "You can't take Adrien's miraculous away from him. Especially not now. We know who Hawk Moth is, and we can stop him! But we can't train a new Cat Noir right now. And we can't take down Hawk Moth without our Cat Noir." _I can't do this without my partner_. "Besides, Adrien can't return home now; he knows our identities."

"And whose fault is that?" Master Fu replied testily. "Whose idea was it to reveal everyone to Adrien, knowing that he was compromised? Knowing that his father was Hawk Moth?"

"I would never tell my father!" Adrien interrupted hotly. Marinette squeezed his hand. "And I am _not_ like my father!"

"Can you really say you would not tell him to save your friends' lives?" Master Fu asked calmly, a sad smile on his face. "If he threatened to kill them if you refused to tell? I don't doubt that you would be willing to _die_ for your friends, but are you willing to watch _them_ die when you can save them? If you can do that without breaking, you are a braver man than most – or else more heartless."

Adrien's face fell.

"It's not like there was much choice," Marinette retorted, shifting closer to Adrien and squeezing his hand tightly. "I had to take him somewhere to patch him up, and the dojo was too far. When he woke up he was going to figure out my identity pretty quickly. And Hawk Moth finding out my identity now would be so much worse than the others, since he only really cares about acquiring the ladybug and cat miraculous. What's done is done." _I can't lose my partner. Not now._

Master Fu furrowed his brow. "You realize that we are all in much greater danger now, don't you?"

Marinette nodded and took a deep breath. "I know," she said. "But we would be in that danger with or without Adrien – and the danger would be worse if he hadn't done what he did! But I've thought about what to do now, and I think," she looked away from Master Fu, at her other friends, "I think it's time for Alya, Nino, and Chloe to keep their miraculous with them permanently. Who knows when they will need them next, or whether Adrien or I will be able to fetch them!" Marinette was heartened to see her friends smile excitedly at that pronouncement.

When Marinette looked back, Master Fu was nodding thoughtfully. "Very well, Marinette. I can accept your reasoning in this, but you must all be careful not to allow Hawk Moth to get his hands on your miraculous. Even just one more miraculous in his hands would make stopping him that much more difficult."

"Don't worry, Master Fu," Marinette told him. "We'll be careful. Stay together. Watch each other's backs. Keep each other safe."

Adrien looked over at her. "So what _am_ I going to do now? I mean, I can't exactly go home…"

"Hey, don't worry, bro!" Nino grinned. "You can always stay with me!"

Marinette shook her head. "You're his best friend. That's the first place his father would look for him."

"Do you have an extra room, Milady?" Adrien asked her. "I could stay with you."

Marinette blushed deeply, trying not to imagine having Adrien stay at her house for the summer. But that wouldn't work either, _and for a lot of reasons_, she added. "No, I don't think that's the best idea, either," she finally said aloud.

Adrien nodded in resignation. "Yeah, I guess you're right. And if your parents find out about us, it could easily get back to my father."

Marinette blanched. "If _anyone_ finds out about us… after tonight your father would realize that I'm probably Ladybug," she finally said.

"So I guess we can't tell _any_ more of our friends until Hawk Moth's defeated," Adrien replied, grinning. "No big deal."

Marinette smiled at his bravado. "Instead of Adrien, I think Chloe needs to stay with me. After all the trouble we went to getting her out of Hawk Moth's sight, she can't go home now, either – not until we defeat Hawk Moth and reclaim the butterfly and peacock miraculous."

"Wait, _me_ stay with _you_?" Chloe's look of confusion transformed into one of shock and outrage. "At that messy, floury bakery!? No, no. Ladybug or not, there is no way I'm staying at your house, Dupain-Cheng! Utterly ridiculous! Why can't I stay with Sabrina?" she asked hopefully.

"Wasn't she the one Volpina-Chameleon used to knock you unconscious?" Alya asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Well, there's that," Chloe replied, looking crestfallen.

"Besides, the fact that it's unacceptable to you makes my house the perfect place to hide you!" Marinette giggled. "But I guess it will take a few days before we know whether this plan is brilliant or terrible…"

Adrien chuckled. "This I've got to see! But," he went on soberly, "where does that leave _me_ to stay? Alya's?"

Marinette shook her head. "You can't stay with any of our friends or classmates; your father and Nathalie know all of them. Actually," she looked over at Master Fu, "I think you should stay here. Hawk Moth doesn't know this place yet, and all the miraculous in the box should be more than enough to keep both you and them safe if he ever finds the dojo."

Master Fu shrugged, fingering the various miraculous he was still wearing, and nodded. "I supposed it was going to happen eventually," he said. To Marinette's questioning look he explained, "The holder of the ladybug miraculous has always been the leader among miraculous holders, even at times has acted as a leader over the Order of the Guardians. I had not expected you to take on that responsibility for many years yet, but these are unusual times, and you have all been called on to mature beyond your years and experience tonight. You have grown into this role far more quickly than I could have imagined. Yes, Adrien can and must stay here. But," he added, "I hope you have thought about what needs to happen past tonight, Marinette."

"I'm… working on it," she said nervously. "But we need to defeat Hawk Moth and take his miraculous before the end of the summer. That's when Adrien will have to go back to school, and then his father will be able to find him any day he wants."


	13. Chapter 13

_AN: This is the final chapter of "Milady," but there are still 2 stories left in this arc. I will start publishing "Mind Games" on Sunday and it will last through the day after Christmas. The third story doesn't have a title yet but is a little more standalone, and I will start publishing that one when it's completely written._

_To Toshiro of the Eternal Dream: Thanks for your review. Personally, when I watch the series I see both: Ladybug is the leader and the rest of the heroes (including Cat Noir) take their lead from her, but there is a balance in the partnership between Ladybug and Cat Noir. I don't see it as being a contradiction with the yin/yang balance aspect so much as a difference between their two roles. Their power sets (creation and destruction) balance each other out, but they are suited to different elements of their role in preserving the universe/fighting evil/saving the world/etc. So their powers balance each other and their roles complement each other._

_I do agree that Marinette was handed a lot of breaks early on that Adrien didn't get until later (Master Fu did eventually meet Adrien to give him some guidance and information). However, the reason Marinette is the first one to receive more information about the miraculous isn't because of her _or_ Master Fu; it's because of Tikki. I think that if Plagg had brought Adrien to Master Fu in season 1 when they found the book, Adrien would have been the one receiving all the information first, rather than Marinette. But I don't think that would have changed the dynamic in their partnership: she would still have been the "leader" while he was still the "support."_

_I hadn't given too much thought to this aspect of the show before you brought it up, so thanks for making me think about it more!_

_To The Keeper of Worlds: Thanks! I'm one of those fans who enjoys the show for what it _could_ be more than what it is currently. I love the idea of pushing the story forward, particularly the conflict with Hawk Moth. And I really want to see more character development from all of the characters._

* * *

Gabriel was troubled. Everything had seemed so much simpler a couple days ago, before Nathalie approached him with this high-risk, high-reward plan to seize the ladybug miraculous with a surprise trap. Before this, he was perfectly content collecting information about his adversaries, the so-called "heroes of Paris." He would have continued sending out his Akumas, measuring how long it took for Ladybug and Cat Noir to respond, how long it took for them to get their allies. All of this data eventually would have allowed him to identify who the heroes were and where the Guardian of the Miraculous lived. And now he knew who Cat Noir was, and he was Gabriel's own son! A pity he never confirmed that back when he first suspected Adrien; he could have taken the cat miraculous at his leisure, without Adrien ever being the wiser until it was too late.

Alas, he had gotten impatient, and now he was exposed and vulnerable. And from her calm and untroubled expression, Nathalie didn't seem to think this was such a problem.

"So Ladybug and her friends defeated Mlle. Rossi – defeated you! She's rallied all her friends and gone into hiding with my son. We have no idea where she is, but now she knows who we are and where to find us!" Gabriel gave Nathalie a withering glare, willing her to feel some remorse. "This plan of yours was supposed to work, Nathalie. We were supposed to get the ladybug miraculous, eliminate Ladybug as a threat, and be one step closer to our eventual victory. Instead, we're right back where we started, only we've lost our anonymity!" Gabriel was shouting by the end of his tirade, breathing heavily.

Nathalie met Gabriel's anger impassively, a smile curling her lips. "The plan itself was solid," she reminded him. "Getting Ladybug alone, outnumbered, and by surprise, we would easily have been able to defeat her. The only way the plan could have failed is if one of her friends intervened, and the only way for that to happen was for them to already be inside the room before we locked it down. The only wild card in the room was Adrien. And we thought we had eliminated Adrien as Cat Noir over a year ago, so none of her friends _should_ have been there. It was only dumb luck that Adrien actually _was_ Cat Noir, and so in a position to foil our plan."

"Yes, and that 'dumb luck,' as you call it, nearly cost my son his life. It certainly cost me my relationship with him."

Nathalie's eyebrows raised and she gave him a look. Mercifully she didn't comment on that statement however, instead saying, "That was going to happen eventually. Since he was Cat Noir, he was already firmly in Ladybug's camp. So if and when your identity became known, he would instinctively have turned on you to support Ladybug and the Guardian, either way. As it is, _you_ may have lost _your_ anonymity, but so has he. How many people know your son better than we do? Knowing who he is, and knowing that Mlle. Bourgeois is Queen Bee, we may be able to narrow down who Ladybug's other allies are, perhaps even unmask Ladybug herself."

"Hmm, true." Gabriel stroked his chin in contemplation. "But the fact that they know who I am still complicates matters."

"Not really. If anything, it simplifies them. They know you are the key, and they know where to find you. So they will have to come to us eventually. And when they do, you still have one card left to play with your son." Nathalie let out a bark of laughter. "Perhaps Adrien being Cat Noir will even work out to our advantage. After all no other Cat Noir could possibly have such a close connection to your ultimate goal."

"Yes," Gabriel mused thoughtfully. "Perhaps that revelation will serve to undo all the damage caused by this one. He will have to come to me, and when he does, he will know why we are doing what are doing. Then he _will_ sympathize with me. That may even shake his belief in that girl and this Guardian of the Miraculous. Then he will _willingly_ join us and give me both his miraculous and the ladybug."


	14. Running out of Time Announcement

Note: This announcement is cross-posted on both "Milady" and "Mind Games." If you read one, you don't need to bother with the other.

The sequel to "Mind Games" is published, titled "Running out of Time." There are a couple other stories in what I'm calling the "Mind Games"-verse (the story that started with "Milady" and continued through "Mind Games") already completed, all of which you can find on my profile. "Bugs Have to Stick Together" expands on Chloe's character development after "Mind Games" (and during the time jump between "Milady" and "Mind Games"). "Tit for Tat" introduces the next "big bad" the Heroes of Paris will have to face now that Hawk Moth has been defeated.

Here is the FF summary for "Running out of Time":

Sequel to "Mind Games." Adrien and Marinette whipped around to see who had just spoken. Adrien's jaw dropped open in shock when he saw the newcomer. "Chloe?" Marinette whispered. "Hi, Mar," the newcomer said. "It's been so long. I need your help." "You're from the future? Can't you ask future-us?" "That's the thing. In my time, you're dead, and you're the problem."


End file.
